How Did Advent Accelerate? (by Amy Ard)
As a child I found no joy in an Advent calendar; all those little flaps and doors and bite-size pieces of chocolate signified nothing more than the fact that Christmas was still a really, really long time away. Especially as I got down to the last few doors, just a few days before the big event, time seemed to take on a pace as slow as molasses sucked through a straw. Admittedly, the coming of the Christ child was not what had me wound so tight. It was the portly fellow in the red suit who delivered untold delights on my living room floor that made the Advent season so terribly long. While the object of my desire may have been misdirected, the spirit of Advent was palpable. I was waiting for something big and it was taking a very, very long time to arrive.
How odd that the older we get, the faster Advent seems to fly by. Barely has the Thanksgiving turkey been devoured before we find that we're out of time to prepare for Christmas. There have been several years when I've realized that Christmas was a week away and I'd not yet put up a tree or even hung a wreath on the door. The units of time have not changed over the years; a minute is still 60 seconds, a day is still 24 hours. How is it, then, that Advent speeds past us when once it crawled along?
Perhaps it is because as adults when we want something we can usually find a way to get it without waiting very long at all. When we do have to wait longer than expected – someone decides to write a check for their groceries or the line at the coffee shop is out the door – we get antsy, even angry for the delay.
This past year my husband and I embarked on an adventure in anti-consumerism. To date, we've gone 11 months and three days without purchasing anything new (except for things like toilet paper and shampoo), and through it all I've learned an old but timeless lesson: good things come to those who wait. Unable to run out the store whenever the whim for something new crosses my mind, I've learned to work hard for the things I really want and let the desire for useless stuff just fade away.
Advent should be a time for slowing down not speeding up. On Christmas Day we celebrate a world transformed by the birth of a small child. What if we lived as if the world might be transformed once again? Our faith tells us that how we keep ourselves busy ourselves during the wait is important. We are not called to lives of idle desperation but active hope. Would Advent creep up on us if we truly believed that the world might be so transformed again by something as unassuming as a child born in a manger? How would you prepare your household, your family, and your neighborhood for a gift so radical and promising?
This year I'll try to wait (the active hopeful kind of waiting) as if I believe that my most impossible dreams - a world where no child goes hungry, no sick are left to die, no bombs explode - could be made real. The anticipation will certainly rival anything from my childhood. I'm waiting for something big this year but I've found that God's gifts always surprise.
Amy Ard is a former national field organizer for Sojourners, and her related commentary, "A Simple Christmas," appears in the December issue of Sojourners.
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Comments
What a great commentary. We all need to slow down a little, if not a lot. While Christmas should be a big celebration, Advent should have just as much meaning in our lives. I'm very glad (keeping my fingers crossed) that retailers haven't found a way to market it (seperate from Christmas) to consumers yet.
Posted by: Eric | December 4, 2007 1:07 PM
"we've gone 11 months and three days without purchasing anything new (except for things like toilet paper and shampoo"
What have you done for food?
Posted by: Bill Samuel | December 4, 2007 1:33 PM
This is something I have been doing informally for several months now-I have termed it as trying not to be so much of a consumer. Interesting all the other people who are doing the same thing. I try not to spend money on anything but essentials, and don't waste much time anymore wandering around stores, looking for things I might "need." This began due to the fact that I'm working on ending my pack rat ways. I want to live simpler, to put it briefly. Our world would be very different, in many ways, if everyone tried their own version of this concept.
Posted by: Ginny | December 4, 2007 2:57 PM
I hope somebody someday organizes a support group for individuals who have been wanting for years to simplify but who have spouses who feel the need to buy everything that's on sale and then some.
Posted by: I and I | December 4, 2007 5:08 PM
What have you done for food?Posted by: Bill Samuel
She has lived feeding off of words of wisdom put forth by the neo-cons who frequent this blog.
Posted by: JamesMartin | December 4, 2007 5:14 PM
Ah...gotta drag out the ole "neocon" reference against anyone who you might possibly have a tiny disagreement with... that's the ticket James.
Posted by: Eric | December 4, 2007 6:38 PM
I would have thot that the pagan origins of the "Christmas" tree combined w/ the value of living trees represent for ecological realities would have prompted Christians to be among the first to jettison the use of real trees in any way, shape or form at the time we celebrate the birth of Christ.
Is this a case where, yet once again, sentimentality trumps spirituality?
Posted by: canucklehead | December 4, 2007 8:17 PM
So what do you suggest, Canucklehead? That we all use plastic trees made from crude oil? Is that an even-up ecological trade-off? I'm not so sure about that. While the real tree was alive it "breathed" in CO2--not a bad thing, considering problems caused by excess carbon in the atmosphere. And when the tree leaves our house on New Years Day, we chip it and use it for mulch--thus restoring organics to the soil. Or we could create a brush pile for wildlife habitat. Can't do that with a fake, made-from-petroleum tree.
And as for the pagan origins of the Christmas tree, we would have to forgo a lot more than Christmas trees if we wanted to purge ourselves of all traditions that have pagan origins--like mistletoe, yule logs, Easter bunnies, Ground Hog Day, and so forth. Are you suggesting then that we become like Jehovah's Witnesses?
Just wondering...
D
Posted by: Don | December 4, 2007 8:37 PM
Thx Don - not at all suggesting we go the fake-tree route, either. Every year I find myself wondering more and more what a uniquely Christian celebration of Christ's birth might look like, sans all the borrowed stuff.
Maybe we ought to start by changing it to August 5 for one thing - take it away from the dollar worshippers. Or at least make it somewhat less attractive for the retail/commercial/advertising folk.
For a while at least.
I think.
Posted by: canucklehead | December 5, 2007 12:42 AM
not advocating fake trees either, Don
ever wonder what would happen if we started celebrating Christ's birth on August 5, in retail no-man's land, and placed a moratorium on borrowing anything from Judaism, paganism, or commercialism?
Posted by: canucklehead | December 5, 2007 12:48 AM
yes...and no more fires in the fireplace either, that uses up wood too. And stop listening to Christmas music, the environment was harmed in creating it. And get rid of the Christmas cookies; the flour that went into them probably wasn't fare trade and used up valuable water when it was grown. And the sugar...oh, the sugar... Where do I stop... haha...
Posted by: Eric | December 5, 2007 9:43 AM
"Ah...gotta drag out the ole "neocon" reference against anyone who you might possibly have a tiny disagreement with... that's the ticket James."
Posted by: Eric | December 4, 2007 6:38 PM
Of course it must be referenced. It is all part of the Zionist Cabal that the Sojo cult is fighting against.
Posted by: bill | December 5, 2007 11:07 AM
I have good memories of Christmas - the music, the dancing, the baking, the tree, the family together from nearby states. We were poor so often the presents for adults were things like a pair of stockings or a candy dish. Children got school clothes and toys. Most of all I loved the Russian music and dancing.
The family is now scattered all over three continents. The present giving has ballooned into a burden that overwhelms the joy of the season... shopping, schlepping, shipping, spending on the credit card that requires burdensome payments all spring. Now ads say you should be giving cars and diamonds. That is obviously ridiculous, but it ratchets up the pressure.
Every year we say "This year presents only for the kids in the family", because we are not ready to take away that one morning of sheer delight from the kids. Then we start thinking of kindnesses others, including relatives, have done, we think of those who live far away, or are lonely and have little. We think of those who have recently joined our family and want to welcome them. We feel like if we ignore them at Christmas it will seem like a slap in the face. The tradition is very strong. At Christmas you reach out to everyone, down to the mail delivery person. So the shopping, the schlepping, the shipping, the spending escalate and escalate. We do not seem able to draw the line.
So the question for me is, how can we change Christmas from a holiday where we feel obligated to give lots of gifts into a holiday where love emerges in other ways? How do we overcome such distances of all kinds that separate us? And here is the problem - silly but true - how not to look like a Scrooge who is covering up stinginess with pious words. Will those who live nearby accept a party without gifts or will they go home gossiping? Will those who live far away accept a contribution given in their name or feel that it is presumptuous?
Your thoughts are welcome.
Posted by: Sonia | December 6, 2007 8:57 AM
Gosh. This is the first bunch of comments I've read on this site.
You guys sure get catty.
Posted by: jvd | December 6, 2007 10:31 AM
Sonia and all-
First, I use Thanksgiving as a way to express appreciation to people for what they mean to me, and what they've done (such as volunteers and donors in a benevolence agency I help administer). I don't give gifts, just handmade cards. It seems more appropriate than at Christmas, and the cards don't get lost among Christmas greetings.
Rather than pious words or expensive gifts for Christmas, framed pictures of your relatives and friends with you are a nice gift. Homemade treats you've shared in the past, along with the recipes, and warm written rememberances of times together can mean much more than something purchased.
It also comes down to WWJBuy? Nothing out of obligation, or begrudgingly. I really enjoy buying things for strangers in need at this time of year. I can imagine them enjoying my gifts (more than my family would).
Nance
Posted by: Nance | December 6, 2007 11:07 AM
Thanks, Nance. I don't have the same strain as Sonia, not having a family of my own, but I was reading this and the other "consumerism" article and asking some of the same questions. I also wonder what Christmas would look like without the borrowed elements, but then like Sonia I think about family traditions and relationships and people who would be hurt if I suddenly made some radical change that affected them too. One thing I have certainly determined to do is do more personal and financial giving (to people in need)this Christmas season. For now I won't take away from friends and family expecting gifts and who put such thought and care into gifts for me, but I will make more sacrifices myself to be more helpful and a blessing where I see the opportunity. What a complicated web consumerism is! I am determined to take real steps toward unwinding myself from it, though. Thanks for the wisdom, Nance.
Charlibee
Posted by: Charlibee | December 6, 2007 12:36 PM
Thanks for the very helpful suggestions Nance!
Thanksgiving is the perfect time to tell people you care about them and thank them. That way it really is the thought that comes through. That way Christmas can be more about the relationships and the joy.
BTW - my gift giving has never gotten to the point of being begrudging, just exhausting.
Posted by: Sonia | December 6, 2007 5:36 PM
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