The Season

Christmas is only a couple of days away. I am reminded of celebrations of Christmas in other cultures.

In the Akan tradition the children dress up in their best clothes and go door to door showing off their finery. When the children come to your door you are expected to dote and to give them candy. It is a very interactive tradition and there is not so much focus on the giving and receiving as there is on the birthday celebration. The celebration has a different facet for each sector of society, and the celebration lasts a week. I particularly enjoyed the day when all of the men got together to drink and to mend old schisms. It was like a big beery cathartic forgiveness session- but sometimes the younger guys just got pissed all over again.

In Ireland there was definitely a greater focus on the religious aspect of the holiday. The cathedrals were packed and the families celebrated with big meals and quality time.

In Korea the Christians were the minority, but not so much of a minority as you might expect. There were plenty of decorations and intense participation in the Christmas related secular activities by the majority Buddhist population. It was as if there were a religious holiday for the faithful and a separate celebration of secular consumerism. Believe it or not I enjoyed that too, because it made my authentic Christianity more important to me, and I engaged in deeper reflection on the nature of the Messiah and how His coming affected me personally. And then I bought doo-dads.

Christmas a stone's throw away from Mecca and Medinah was very strange. I was so used to cold at Christmas that the searing desert heat kind of dampened my holiday spirit. But then everywhere I went people were wishing me Merry Christmas and I couldn't help but feel good about it, especially since many of these Arabs were wearing traditional Bedouin garb and there were camels all over the old walled city. I kind of felt like I was in the Christmas story. And I felt good knowing that the predominant religion of the area was mandated by its prophet to be tolerant of other religions. But it may have been easier for them to be tolerant of Christianity because they believe that they cannot get to heaven except through Jesus.

And now there is the unique culture within my four walls. My nuclear family is still forming our Christmas traditions. These include Dad making a turkey with the secret recipe stuffing, Kid not sleeping and saying that she wants everything she lays her eyes on, and Mom reminding us at every chance that the celebration is bittersweet because the gift is also the sacrifice. I wonder if the solace and comfort I feel are a consequence of the season or if it is the other way around.

Whatever your tradition, we wish you the best!

Extreme Othering

I was watching a show on TV a couple days ago and it was all about wounded American soldiers coming back from Iraq. They all talked about how it was so important to take care of each other in the midst of life threatening danger. They said a lot about being there for each other and doing whatever was necessary to make sure they all came home together, and safe. These are things one would expect soldiers to say about dangerous times with close friends. They said something else too, which one would also expect soldiers to say, but it stuck in my mind for some reason.

They said that soldiers do not think about politics when it comes time to fight. They are assigned a task and they must complete it. This is absolutely true. The U.S. has the world’s largest, most professional standing army made up of all volunteers. It is the greatest army in the world and it and its individual soldiers have my utmost respect and gratitude for the job that they do.

What makes their job harder, though, is what the politicians do. They send the army in to do a job without thinking it all the way through. The soldiers on that show were from small towns in rural America, including upstate New York and Maine. Officers who have commanded combat units in Iraq have characterized their rank and file to me, off the record, as “know-nothing teenagers from Podunk America,” who have to deal with fighting Arab extremists in Iraq and also must be the experts at maintaining civil order and meting out justice. These men and women are doing the very best they can, but they were not trained for those tasks. Fighting, yes. Nation and society building? No.

I don’t get frustrated so much anymore, but I can remember when I was in my late teens and early twenties. Young men get frustrated. Being the target of a guerilla insurgency is frustrating. They kick down doors. They see Arab women without their hijabs, without their abayas. They create more guerillas every single time they do.

Certainly they don’t create more guerillas every time they act outside of the norms of Arab society and Islamic culture….

I have personally met Jordanians who are second generation refugees from Palestine who have told me in clear voices and with bright eyes that they would have no problem going to their grave if they knew they were exacting revenge against the enemies of Palestine, and in the next sentence telling me that they personally held the U.S. responsible for what happened to Palestine.

They were wrong, but that didn’t matter to them. I told them they were wrong, and they were nice enough to pretend to listen, and then they went right on hating the U.S., but they didn’t hate me. They had a long list of grievances with my country, but they thought I was a pretty good guy. Eventually, if you know enough good guys from a place you can separate the people from the policies and maybe eventually lend a real ear and engage in dialogue.

But…

As long as we have a critical mass of fighting men occupying holy sites and behaving like Westerners in and among the Arab population the animosity will not abate among those who decide not to look at the individuals as people. Granted, that is hard to do when they are all wearing the same uniform and keeping holed up behind blast-proof walls.

Sunny Winter Day

I realize today how different my new surroundings are, really. It is sunny and in the fifties here today, and this close to Christmas I am used to bitter cold. It is quite different, but, I must admit- rather pleasant. Maybe I'll wait until after winter to visit the north again...

Peep this...

http://excitingtruestories.blogspot.com/