Skip to main content

Underneath the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

I'm always interested in what's UNDER things. Perhaps it's my parents' fault. The "surprise" 4th child that came 12 years after what they thought was their last, they told me that I was found under a rock. They were just walking along one day, and Mama lifted up a rock, and there I was. Frankly, that makes more sense to me than what I learned in sex ed. In any case, I now spend a decent amount of time, lifting up rocks, or conversations, or what-have-you, trying to figure out what is underneath it all.

 Like these Charlie Brown Christmas Trees that they sell everywhere. I grew up on the Peanuts' tv specials -- heck, I remember when they were accompanied with the Dolly Madison snack cake commercials -- but I'm a little befuddled as to why anyone would deliberately buy one of these decorations. Apparently, they do, since they're sold absolutely everywhere.

The people buying them, they do realize that the magic of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree was that they infused it with love, which made it magically transform into a full Christmas tree, covered in needles, ornaments, and tinsel ... right?

Well, maybe I am the one who has it all wrong. Quite possibly, in this time that is a bizarre combination of extreme affluence and, because of comparative value, extreme debt/sense of scarcity, what we can look at that makes us focus on importance, on real meaning, is a fake pathetic Christmas tree.

We're searching for symbolism. And those warm feelings we got, wrapped up in a blanket, polycotton stockings on the fireplace, watching a television cartoon that explained to us the real meaning of Christmas.

I don't mock. I get it.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Me and My Collar

You may run into me on a Friday, in my neighborhood, so it's time I let you know what you might see. When I was doing my required unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), my supervisor suggested that any of us who came from traditions where a clerical collar was an option, take one "collar week," to see how we were treated, as opposed to wearing regular professional clothes. After a couple of days, I joked to the Catholic priest, "How do you manage the power?" In regular clothes, I would walk into a patient's room, and it would take about 5 or so minutes of introductions and pleasantries before we could really get down to talking about their feelings, their fears, the deep stuff. With most people, as soon as that clerical collar walked in the room, with me attached, they began pouring out all the heavy stuff they were carrying. I was riding the bus back and forth every day, and though not quite so dramatic, the collar effect was alive there, to...

While to That Rock I'm Clinging

Pete Seeger died. I hadn't cried all day, even though I had thought about this day before it happened; dreaded it coming, because it would mean that death really did come to all of us, even those of us as good, as filled with Spirit and meaning, as willing to live out our values day by day, as the one we called "Uncle Pete." I won't go into all his virtues. You can google that. I will say that the hagiography you see right now about Pete Seeger is far closer to the truth than most sentimental postmortems. A Facebook friend, Karen McCarthy, posted a video -- And I broke. I never met Pete, unlike some of my peers. But his were the first songs I heard. I still have the LP, Birds, Beasts, Bugs and Fishes.  Abiyoyo, Abiyoyo ... Perhaps he was my first minister. His were the songs played in my house, and my parents lifted him up as a hero. For fighting for justice. For the Hudson River. For adhering to his values during the McCarthy hearings, and then agai...

Hey, Vampire Slayer -- Who's Your "Watcher"?

I was watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer* one day, like you do, and I thought, "Wow. I wish I had a Watcher." According to the Buffy Wiki , a Watcher is: a member of the Watchers Council, devoted to tracking and combating malevolent supernatural entities (and particularly vampires), primarily by locating individuals with the talents required to fight such beings and win. More specifically, Watchers were assigned to train and guide Slayers, girls that were part of a succession of mystically powered young women who were destined to face the forces of darkness. And then, quick as a vampire turns to dust when stabbed with a wooden stake, I realized, "Ohmygosh, I TOTALLY have a Watcher." My Watcher is named Ken, and he's an expert in Bowen Systems Theory, and he coaches me, teaching me about the vampires I encounter, and drilling me in how to slay them. No, the Vampires aren't people around me!  Far from it. The Vampires are my own responses to anxiety...