Tempo
“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.” Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” might be about what we do with Time as much as it is about what we do with Christmas. At the beginning, Mr. Scrooge is obviously a man who has forgotten the virtues of the holiday — generosity, kindness, abundance, thanksgiving, family, etc. But he is also a man who has forgotten Time — how he got to where he is, what is happening around him, and where he is headed. That is the real terror in the ghostly visits in the story. The unexamined path of his life has left him a stranger to himself. And, as a byproduct, left Christmas a stranger as well.
These days, as Christmas turns into New Year’s, can be difficult ones. The excitement of the holidays wane and the fullness of winter sets in. The quickness of the daylight and the duration of the dark render the rhythm of time more elusive than usual. And it is precisely for that reason that honoring Christmas is so vital. For what other day do we hold the Past, Present and Future together so easily?
When I previously wrote about Time in the Spring I was concerned about the rhythm of the day. At that time sheltering in place still had a sense of novelty, and we were all clumsily figuring that out together. But as the weeks have become months, we’ve honed our skills (or simply gotten used to being cloistered) and are all experts now in our own way. What we thought, or hoped, would just be a bad episode has transformed into a bad era. And it might be prudent to not only consider the rhythm of our day, but the tempo of our life.
The pace we had originally set was sufficient for nine weeks, but now it has been nine months — with many months to go — and fatigue and resignation has set in. You hear this in phone calls, see it in the latest statistics, and feel it as you get ready for bed at night. And even after vaccines are distributed, more stimulus checks have been received and spent, it will take years to examine what the year 2020 has done to our lives. That will require a new tempo, perhaps one we have never considered, and a pondering of the Past, Present and Future in their entirety.
So, as the decorations are put away, no more gifts are left to be unwrapped, and we start to consider taking in more exercise than taking in another cookie, the invitation to "keep [Christmas] all year" is a vibrant one. How can the bright lights, warm colors, holy candles and shiny ornaments be stored in our hearts and not just our closets? That is the New Year's question. How can you invite your Past, your Present and your Future to sit at the table? That is the Christmas question.
May you, my friend, welcome the visits from your Past, your Present and your Future. May the visions they share be received as a kindness, and not spark the fright that dreams from our life usually bring. May you honor Christmas Time in your heart, and keep it all year long. And may you find a new tempo in this new year — one that invigorates and consoles your being.