I actually dislike the term Christmas. I tend to lean more to Yuletide but if I say that many think I'm trying a bit too hard. Like many Christian theologians and cultural historians, I think of Christmas as an arbitrary date set aside by earlier Christians to celebrate the birth of their savior, an opportunity to assume an older tradition and capitalize on it for their benefit. There really is little to connect it to Christianity but a lot to connect it to pre-Christian northern European paganism.
I view this time of year as a celebration of loved ones, tradition, and to honor the enduring human spirit. It's a time to feast and turn one's attention to others, to contemplate what is truly meaningful in one's life. It's a time of offerings, a time of charitable acts, a time of forgiveness, and a time of brotherly and sisterly love, acceptance, and appreciation. It is an honoring of humanity itself and transcends religion and ethnicity. Well, at least that's how I view it.
Alas, some think they have exclusive rights to the holiday and are often offended whenever the term Christmas isn't used. I feel badly for those so tainted by our sectarian predispositions. They often miss out on the joy of the season when contemplating such irrelevancies.
I must say, I LOVE this song. The lyrics so eloquently articulate an incredibly unifying principal of true ethical or, dare I say, Christian living. In a world filled with so much intolerance both at home and abroad, I delight in this invitation to not keep our world small and discover how much a like we truly are. "We are all the glowing embers of a distant fire." And that fire is known by many names and imagined in many forms. The human race is a tremendous creation yet, remarkably, it goes to great lengths in refusing to acknowledge and celebrate its divine diversity!
