S.A.D.

S.A.D. or Seasonal Affective Disorder is prevalent during the dull dark days of winter. The Mayo Clinic in their online writeup say “Don't brush off that yearly feeling as simply a case of the "winter blues" or a seasonal funk that you have to tough out on your own. Take steps to keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year.” One of the things making this season harder than it already is for many people are the saccharine holiday tunes that are playing ad nauseam everywhere we go.

Take, for example, It’s a Marshmallow World [1949] sung Dean Martin, among others. The words of the chorus capture of the feeling of entitlement that is so common in our society.

“The world is your snowball, see how it grows,

That's how it goes, whenever it snows,

The world is your snowball just for a song,

Get out and roll it along.”

Life [or the world] owes us all that is good. We deserve to live the good life, and to have more and more and more …. [Envision that rolling snowball here]. It doesn't demand anything of us in return. So if you don’t have ‘more’ in the eyes of the world, then it has to be your fault for not getting out and claiming it. How about “I’ll be Home for Christmas”, “Chestnuts Roasting by the Fireplace,”, or “Silver Bells”. We hear them played over and over, and they, and others like them, paint an idealized picture of the Christmas Season. What if you are out-of-work, or have living expenses that exceed your income? What if there is no longer anyone wanting to come home for Christmas? Or simply, what if the weather doesn’t co-operate and it doesn’t snow? And what if after Christmas is past we feel that it has somehow not lived up to all this hype and that we failed to produce the ‘perfect’ Christmas experience?

We can choose the seasonal music we play in our homes this time of year. The Christmas carols or songs that speak to us, songs that tell a story like ‘Frosty', ‘Rudolph’ or ‘You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” or perhaps ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ from the pop culture: whatever feeds our spirit and empowers us in this time of preparation and waiting.

Christmas, as a strictly religious holiday, doesn’t exist in today’s society - nor has it ever. It is up to each one of us, to take from the trappings of the season, those things that resonate with what we are celebrating and with how we want to celebrate it. At the same time we need to give others the same right to celebrate this season as best resonates with them - whether they have a differ language, religion, skin colour or even sit beside us in the pew on Sunday morning!

Something I have learned over the years is that there is no right way to ‘do’ Christmas. Most years the creche scene come out, occasionally it doesn’t. Different CDs get pulled out and played, Even attendance at worship services changes, is modified or perhaps is even missing one year from the next.

Listen to the music in your heart this Advent season. What does that music say to you? Are you celebrating Love, Justice, Peace, Family, Fellowship, Faith? Are you celebrating the birth of him who we claim to follow? Whatever it is, we don’t fool anyone, least of all ourselves by being anything but honest in how and what we choose to celebrate.

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