Joni Mitchell had a song called River on her “Blue” album that included that phrase ‘it’s coming on Christmas, we’re cutting down trees, they’re puttin’ up reindeer, singing songs of joy and peace…” with a melancholy appeal “I wish I had a river, that I could skate away on…” – an analogy for getting to a better place – for more happiness. 

Those were similar, but in certain ways different, times of turbulence.

We had the Vietnam War still going, and then there was Nixon and all of that weirdness, splitting the country into factions.  

What we had hoped and prayed would become peace eventually did (sort of) but it took awhile.  And the thing to remember is that it’s not human to have lasting peace. It never has been, no matter how advanced the species evolves, for there to be lasting peace and for everyone to get along.

This much I do know, and most people probably do know this at some level, as well.

We have embedded within our DNA that shifting angst.  We have, many of us, that desire for “more” – “more better” “more of” “more this”  “more that” – whatever it is many of us want “more…”  We want “perfect” and we pray to accept within ourselves and others that we can’t be perfect. 

Because we’re human, we cannot be perfect…

After those days when Joni wrote and recorded that song, things settled down eventually – for a while, as I said. 

We had the to’s and fro’s of economic difficulties, wars trying to start, away from here, yet the generations who knew war intimately, were still keeping in place some semblance of civility.  Kind of.  Sort of.  Sometimes, it was as if there was a bit of the “war romantic” trend – but, with the Gulf wars (Middle East), we began to see some different things happening.  Subtle at first, but then as it evolved, we recognized that technology was having a very large impact on our world and on wars.  The generations were changing.  No longer was this “our father’s and our grandfather’s wars”.

Nonetheless, in Winter we have the time when we reflect – call it what it is – beginning with Thanksgiving and moving through Christmas and New Year’s Day – it is termed by some “The most wonderful time of the year…”  But, then it isn’t always that for everyone.  It’s just a goal, really.  Something put out on media, publicly, for the influence and urging of everyone to “cheer up”.

Except there are people who can’t cheer up.  Life is grim for them.  There is nothing but misery, loneliness, pain, desperation, despondency, anger, sadness, depression, and the list goes on of the aspects of people’s lives that effectively cannot let them cheer up.  It would be interesting to know just what percentage of the world’s population at any given moment cannot “cheer up”.  Probably, it’s more than 50%.  At least right now.

We have much in our country, relatively, to be thankful for compared to some, but since many have never been beyond the walls of their places of birth, they wouldn’t know.  You kind of have to get out in order to see how the other people not living here bide, day to day.  The first time you do, it’s a shocker.  It’s far worse than the adverts for the relief foundations.  Far more dismal and unimaginably difficult than people can imaging – because it is not a relatable experience for them.  They may have it “rough”, but they may not know just how “rough” rough can be.  Seriously.

Christmas and Hanukkah and the holidays around this time of year, tend to mark our calendars with some form of hope – of newborn hope – of hopeful beginnings… Of the beginning of salvation from “this” – whatever “this” is.

Every year, I get older and wiser – but then, as I get on, I look back and have that weird sensation that what I once thought about certain things, actually needs to be revised…  Let’s say this happens a lot, these days.  It makes me go “oh.  I need to re-think that”.  I’m not so stubborn that I will refuse to change my mind.  Sometimes, changing your mind is a good thing, actually.  It actually feels kind of good, sometimes.  Like a relief of some sort.

Well, back to the situation at hand.  It’s coming on Christmas…  We take this time of year to “reassess” — to understand where we are going (or not).  We have the situation where, it’s not what we do not have, but more what we have that we should reflect upon. 

The public focus so much is fear-driven, these days – the awfulizing, the constant reminder of threats and horrors, then the promises for deliverance that is constantly the message…  Sometimes it’s good to just turn off the news.  Get a break.  Red Trees?  So what?  It’s just a weird situation and it’s not our situation.  It’s hers.  Bless her heart.  We’d probably have black trees with gray snow if it was us.  Seriously.

So, are we progressing towards the cliff?  Or are we just shifting into the next dimension?  Will we ever know? 

Will we ever rise and look down and see that from a distance all is actually not changed, but merely ebbing and flowing – as we gaze at planets from a distance and see the fluid nature of those who appear to have some changes in some sort of regular but, irregular, patterns?

For now, we know that there is a good bit of unrest in the world.  As we approach the time when we contemplate the meaning of these holidays – you would like to believe that people will pause and think – you would like to believe that people will stop themselves from going out of control.

At least you hope for this time of year that we have some peace on Earth and some goodwill within humankind.  Let’s just see how it goes…

In the meantime, we’re going to put out the reindeer, and sing songs of joy and peace…