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Sunday, December 25, 2011

C is for Christ's Mass

Just finished listening to the midnight mass on Radio 4 (Oh...; I'm an old softee really, curmudgeonly and intolerant but a softee!) as I got the tree dressed, this is the old 'Family' tree at mums and some of the decorations are over 70 years old, been to India and back in the 1940's!

And it got me thinking...dangerous - I know - but stick with it...I've been doing this blogging lark on and off through a difficult period in my own life, and a strange period in the life of the wider society for the last 3 years, and while every year a few people do some sort of 'Happy Christmas' post before they go off for the holidays, in past years it has been only A FEW, this year not only have most people done some kind of 'seasonal' post, several people have done a few, often quite nostalgic ones.

Now I'm sure this is due to the credit crunch (a dreadful expression for the beginning of the end of white western capitalism), in that it seems to me that it has concentrated minds a bit more than normal.

I have a little book in which - since I was a pretentious teenager - I have copied sayings and quotes which grab me, sometimes well known, sometimes not, and I don't always know (or note) the source and one of these is;

"The best time of your life is that to which you always return [to - in your mind] when the present proves too unbearable"

Now; I'm not suggesting that we are all finding right now 'unbearable', but just that you don't remember past birthdays on your birthday the same way you remember past Christmases at Christmas...you don't remember the dead on your birthday the same way you do at this time of year...you don't cast your mind back to childhood birthdays, school birthdays, birthdays with lovers, drunken birthdays in Berlin, other peoples birthdays ON your birthday in the same way you remember these things AT Christmas EVERY Christmas.

We mark the passing of time...by Christmases! Yes; it's close to New Year, but how many drunken New Year's meld into each other in our memories? But Christmas...from the first one we can remember at 3 0r 4 or 5 years old to last years, all the 'big' presents for most years, the disappointments, the snowy Christmas in Bishop's Stortford, tobogganing down residential streets and being hauled back up by your godmothers dog! The first Christmas you could buy your parents things with your own money, Your first Christmas away from home and family because of a new job or new partner, drowning your sorrows in alcohol with your mates stuck in Berlin on Christmas Duties, phone calls home on Christmas Day, jobs that gave you two weeks off, jobs that gave you a day off, early or late 'Christmas Day' with a lover - in secret, unhappy or happy, we mark the passing of time in Christmases.

The point I'm getting to is that this year more people seem to be giving more thought than usual to Christmas Past, and I think it's a valuable lesson as it shows that no matter how commercial the bean-counters try to make it, despite the MacWendyKing's Cranberry Wrap two-for-one offer, it comes down to family, to lost loves, lost innocence, absent friends, family traditions, daft rituals, stupid jokes in cheap crackers, memories - some painful, some to make you smile, some that leave a roomful of people laughing at the re-telling, others that produce a groan...every year, but would we have it any other way...?

I'm a cynical atheist, but once a year I think I'm allowed to waver!

To all the followers of this blog, to any casual visitors, to the several contributors and all commenters, thanks for dropping by and taking a bit of my wittering away with you, and wherever you are, whoever you're with - have the best Christmas you can and may 2012 be an improvement on 2011 for all of us.

13 comments:

  1. Great thoughts, I have quite a similar feeling. Maybe that's because we're at the edge of a new era, facing a great change in our lives, so it's natural to have a look at our past. But maybe it's just because Christmas always existed in our "european culture", even before the birth of Jesus and christian religion, and it's there to remind us where we're coming from, and what our true nature is. A day for remembrance and old good things. After all, what is a present, if not a way to tell "I didn't forget you, so please don't forget me"

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  2. Well put
    If anyone is going to actually celebrate X-mas ..in the true sense then they should bin all this twisted constantine invented, new church c**P and get back to the "true" meaning of the christian teachings (and that coming from this hard line Athiest)
    Cheers
    Paul
    PS..call me a git..but I haven´t forgotten the blue men. After hunting through my stash a couple of times I finally had the good idea to actually ask the rest of the family...my son had "appropiated" them and they have finally been located in the bomb site that is optimistically called his bedroom. Good news is a couple of other oddities turned up which I´ll send along with the "blueMen"

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  3. Very touchingly expressed - God bless you, mate - have a great Christmas!

    Tony

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  4. Wishing you a merry Christmas my friend.

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  5. Merry Christmas Hugh . From Ken

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  6. Thanks Guys, I hope you had a good one and that now - that the best of the over-stuffing, drinking, visititng and counter-visits have passed - find time for a bit of a chilling-out with your modelling, wargamming or collecting!

    Paul - You're a git! NO Mate...it was a gift not a swap and if you find something it's a bonus, I am at the other (Naval) address now, and while the newspapers have the story which might lead to an eventual appeal, it's unlikely I'll be returning to the old haunt!

    Ken, Hi; Don't know where you are in the [ex-]colony so don't know if you had snow or a BBQ!..but hope it went well anyway. Saved your tanks in a seperate box when I was moving, but then lost the box in the back of the shipping container...Doh! And it's likely to stay there for at least 9 months, but they've got you name on them!

    To all - a Happy New Year wish is extended by this blogger!!

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  7. FELIZ AÑO NUEVO DESDE ESPAÑA, EL MUNDO SIEMPRE SERÁ Small Scale World
    PARA LOS QUE TENEMOS AFICIONES PARECIDAS

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  8. Hi hugh , Vancouver , Washington , Rainy , and wet . Had a great Xmas , Soent it with my kids and thier families , No problem on the tanks , Hope all is well with you . Iknow craved in the bottom with a hot knife , Lol

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  9. No Ken, I got worried the knife wealts might somehow fade, so I took a vehicle uphostery sticher loaded with day-glo orange punk-rock boot-laces to both, people down the other end of the street now know they're yours (in bad light), but the turrets are a little skew-wif, still - I'm sure you'll work round that in time!

    Have a good New Year
    H

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  10. Be easy to find them , LOL A Happy Years to you . Ken

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  11. I hear you man hope you had a good one this year

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