Some Canadians as I have read a few times, believe they have no ideology unlike other peoples of the Free World. That makes them somewhat unique, truly free of the albatross or hang ups other peoples have to struggle against in their daily grind. Ordinary citizens seemed to be saying life can be lived in peace and harmony, in sufficiency and silent pride without the breast beating bravado and commitment to their politics and religious beliefs. To many Canadians may be, there can be a good life without politics and religion running (or undermining or ruining?) their lives. Life is as it should be; not so remote from nature’s way of moderation; unbowed to the machinations of technology and commercialization of reason.
Let it be very clear. I am not saying some Canadians who profess no ideology, have no Christmas. By its dominant population the world can be arbitrarily divided into two contrasting ideologies: democracy and communism with their various subsets defining freedom or the shackles of their citizens. Christmas as an undying annual celebration of the birth of mankind’s redeemer may also as never before, be seen in the context of an ideology. To do so could unravel its evolving and seldom written human character.
Christmas as openly celebrated by Christians of the Free World becomes synonymous to values most valued by Christians like gift-giving, a day of remembering and caring for what a Hindu, Mahatma Mahondas Gandhi called the “Children of God” or India’s “Untouchables”; a day almost holy, dedicated only to the happiness and joy of children. Of the unshakened belief in Santa Claus, of altars submerged in the bloom of poinsettias, of songs and church hymns and their jarring aberrations by rock bands, of flashing, blinking lights and shy lanterns; of new signature garments and unbelievable electronic gadgets, etc.
Some words, every phrase, every line in the above paragraph has a spin that can bring to life a reality of opposites; what Christmas is like for the rich on one end and for the poor on the other end. In the middle of the ideological continuum could be Jesus Christ’s real Christmas as it is being celebrated then and even now in Jerusalem.
Whether in grade two or grade three of my elementary school days, I can not now remember when “The Gift of the Magi” by O’Henry became to my innocent mind the lasting implant about Christmas. It was about natural beautiful hair sold for less valuable watch chain and a father’s gold watch sold for a comb. Come to think of it now, the gesture of sacrifice as a gift was so uplifting, so powerful that Christmas can symbolize the diminished value of gifts into a magical expression of purest love. It is the middle of the road, the centrist albeit fictional ideology of Christmas.
To explore Christmas’ ideological metaphor, atonement in the extreme right means humans achieving lives of “love one another,” whereas on the extreme left it is, No Christmas at all for a Marxian “classless society.” If theoretically, Christ’s Christmas is dead centre to the ideological continuum, human societies’ choices are only three: to linger near or stay put at centre, to go right or go left. Those oldies with antiquated hard heads like me may not need the internet to understand, but the younger generations clueless on ideology may have to refer to Wikipedia for a bit of mental jog. But what is the point of this seeming incoherence, this rambling with words? A question answers this question: “Quo Vadis Christmas”?
Indeed, whereto is Christmas being taken by both believers and non-believers? To begin with believers do believe strongly or weakly in the humble birth Jesus Christ. Non-believers may have their own “Christmas” regardless of their theism. In the Philippines, most Catholics and Protestants eagerly anticipates the month of December not really for its holy significance but more for the blessings it brings to the few lucky ones. It is the month of letting go, of guarded indulgence to be kind, to be happy, to be generous.
It is time to splurge on gifts to lucky children on signature items, on cars, on condos, travel abroad, and cash, more cash. To digress on irrelevance, a visit this holiday season to the Rockwell (Power Plant) Mall in Makati City I was in awe admiring in glorious display the sportscar Mercedes Benz SLK200 being raffled to a lucky shopper this Christmas. A real WOW for a lucky (rich?) shopper.
Conversely, for the multitudes of unlucky ones, which I failed to ogle at Baseco or Payatas, this December is still the month of the “audacity of hope” (of US President Obama) to keep them standing in one piece for the next twelve months. To the these unlucky ones, it’s Christmas time anytime, everytime Erap or Gloria pays them a visit. Notable in both instances however, the lucky shoppers of Rockwell Mall or the unlucky ones of Baseco Compound or Payatas, there is no sign of the shadows of the Magi. No Jerusalem there.
Christmas is NOT really that bad now. Whereas before only government corporate big shots get 13 to 15 months salary to cover Christmas bonuses, it’s been stopped. Now it is mandatory even for private sector labor to have a 13th month salary. In addition to their Christmas bonus, government personnel had been granted by the President, performance incentives, probably available for Christmas spending.
Indeed again, the direction to which Christmas is being herded by Filipinos follows the path taken by the Magi: it is better to give than to receive. For nowhere it is asked what the Magi were expecting in return. For nowhere too it is said when God’s mysterious ways really began. Suffice it was there with the visit of the Magi bearing gifts of dubious material value.
In the end which is not likely to happen even as we get closer to hard-to-believe doomsday, as people lost in merriment go to the extreme poles of the right or left of the Christmas ideology, when they reach its ends and fall into the precipice, nothing will be left but dead Christmas ideology. The festive celebration will be about something else.
May I greet all BALITA readers: MASAGANANG PASKO tungo sa MALIGAYANG BAGONG TAON. There is causation in the greeting: a Prosperous Christmas hopes to lead to a Happy New Year.