Holiday Blues
Read on Minnesota Public Radio on December
2, 2004
By Nanci Olesen
Jesus. He’s already gotten enough
attention this year. Jesus is just as tired as we are. He knows we need a break.
He knows we just got done with campaign
ads and staying up all night watching the
election returns. He knows we’re
worried sick about this war and the economy
and
the results of that election. He saw us
traveling I-90/94 home from northern Illinois
after a gray Thanksgiving weekend. He saw
our
cars, bumper to bumper past Madison on
a wet and cold Sunday night, talking with
our partners about the three weekends that
are ahead which will involve an endless
round of craft fairs, concerts, holiday
parties, card sending, and shopping. And
lo, Christ said, “Oh please. Let’s
just not do it this year.”
How about every four years? Then we could
have something to look forward to! Those
of us who MAKE the holiday come ALIVE for
our families, those of us with the letters
M-O-M in our names could feel some true
sense of spirit just by the fact that we
only have to pull it off every four years.
Should we vote on it?
I’m getting older. I need time to
go more slowly. But it’s going faster and faster and I can’t keep up. It’s
dark at 4:30 in the afternoon. How did
it get to be December already? I feel like
I just got done with all my back-to-school
business and now my children are half way
to summer vacation.
I can’t find my
way out of the changes that are sweeping
across the country and the world. I want
to slow down.
Let’s take a poll. Who really wants
it to be the holidays right now?
I’ll tell you who. My children, God
bless them, every one. They’re paging
through the catalogues. They’re rehearsing
their parts in the Christmas program. They’re
getting their toys for tots money together.
They’re
dying for a really big snowfall. They’ve
pulled out the boxes of decorations and
marked the day we get the tree on the calendar.
They are starry eyed, as always, and excited.
And they should be. Hope lives in the promise
that every Christmas brings. Every year.
Jesus. He doesn’t really need all
this hoopla. But the kids do. Probably
more than ever. Alright. I’ll do
it for the kids.
—Nanci Olesen
producer and host, MOMbo: 1990-2007 |
