What has become of this holiday? Is popular culture putting out some strange messages about the meaning of the holiday?
Is it just me or has the meaning of the holiday been corrupted. It has morphed from a celebration of the birth of Jesus to what? A festival of consumption? For me, perhaps the most disturbing but telling ads were those from a large retailer that depict their fantasy shopper. She's a wild eyed addict who works out to get in shape for the upcoming shopping fest to come.
It is also disturbing to me to hear what used to be Christmas Carols converted into jingles for retail advertising. I wonder what kind of culture this teaches children. How does this impact the meaning of the holiday for our children. Has it has shifted the meaning of the season from a celebration of the birth or a savior, to the mythology that "stuff" equals happiness.
We seem as a culture to not yet recognize the unsustainable nature of our current life style. Constant growth and consumption is simply not sustainable going forward. I find this ad so striking because I think the source of many of the problems we face, global warming, habitat destruction, mass extinctions, pollution, even the changing economy, are related to the fact that we have developed a consumption addiction. We have become what Martin Luther King called a thing oriented culture rather that a person oriented culture. As approximately 4 1/2% of the worlds population we have been consuming up to 30% of the worlds energy resources, and 25% of the worlds resources as a whole. If the other 95% of the people on the planet wanted to consume at the same rate we do it would take 5 additional planets to sustain this. Check this video, about 21 minutes but worth a watch.
The story of stuff: ((http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8))
It seems crazy to think this is what we have come to but then I watched clips of people camping out at retailers to be first in line to buy a sale item. Then I witness the resulting stampede when the doors open, in which people literally trample each other to get the things they covet. Wow... is this what we have come to at the zenith of our culture!
I will close with my three principals for how to live a happier life as a holiday wish to all Kossaks.
#1 Live with gratitude. We are trained to be unhappy by the consumption culture, wanting what we don't have or wishing things are different than what they are. The more your able to shift away from wanting what you don't have or wishing things were in ways they are not, and the more you can focus on what you have to be grateful for the more I believe it will change you. Emotionally and what is important changes. "Stuff" doesn't matter so much any more.
#2 Live with out resentment. Carried anger and resentment is a heavy emotional burden to carry and it tends to effect the person who carries it the most. The only to resolution for resentment that I know of is to forgive. Otherwise you condemn your self to live in the past reliving past wrongs. The more we live in the past the less time we have to be present in the current moment deciding where to from here.
#3 Live with out regret. We cannot undo past mistakes, all we can do is learn from our past mistakes, and I would say to keep the wisdom of our past experience, but let go of the regret. It's not as heavy of an emotional burden to carry as resentment but it is still a heavy one to carry.
For my self, trying to live by these principals is a part of how I will try to resist the pull of the commercial consumption fest that this season has become.