Jingle the bells
‘So, it was that time of the year again,’ said my old friend, the world famous Red Cap, from the top of the Christmas tree. I thought it would be a good idea to have a philosophising Cap on top of the tree instead of the traditional star or angel. From up there he will have a better view of the festivities and traditions of us the, according to him, “inferior mere mortals”.
‘Yes,’ I confirm merrily. ‘Jingle Bells were ringing joyously down the isles of shops in tune with the jingling of cash registers all over the world, and Boney M’s Little Drummer Boy competed with the sound of children throwing temper tantrums in front of shelves stacked to the roof with toys of all description while desperate mothers, in the spirit of Christmas, tried not to murder them in public. It was marvellous, absolutely wonderful, don’t you think?’
‘Yes, I know you are mad about it, you just love the spirit of it. You find it thrilling and exciting and joyful. Me, I fail to see the sense in any of this, but then again, you are a mere mortal, a stupid creature driven by senseless passion and uncontrollable emotions.’
‘But look at all the beautiful Christmas trees with the little lights in them. The streets were aglow with colourful lights and marvellous decorations,’ I tell him. ‘The people were happy and friendly and more forgiving. Laughter and love was in the air. It always stirs something deep in you, it fills you with wonder, with awe as if some miracle is about to happen.
‘Like the philosopher and poet David Whyte says, we have “a sense of being pulled, a conversation between our desire for a world we want to find and being desired by a world that already has, at some level, found us long ago,” I implored enthusiastically.
‘You saw on TV how the people of Europe are going overboard with the decoration of their streets and houses, turning towns and cities into fairy landscapes against a white backdrop of snow. Even the formerly oh so politically correct Americans were digging deep into their pockets and were going all out to surpass the “heathen” Europeans in sprucing up their streets in the spirit of Christmas. It was so wonderful, I felt like laughing and crying at the same time when I saw the people so exuberantly happy, and carefree. And for the first time in decades they dared to proclaim their God shamelessly in public by prayer and song. I was so happy.’
‘Yes, yes,’ the Cap yawns distractedly. (I just hate it when he does this.)
‘But here at home I observe something rather contrary,’ the Cap murmurs confidentially. Here we have more of a lethargy towards the festive season. It is as if there is another type of Drummer Boy and Drummer Girl at work. Their drumming is of a different beat, a contrary sound, a sort of ominous, ungodly sound coming, of all places, directly from the church! We might call them the “Christmas-must-fall” drumming brigade.
‘I have said it before, and I will say it again, I do not understand you blockheaded, bi-peddled creatures. You are as mad as they come, the whole lot of you.
‘Every year it is the same lament; Christmas is only about making money for the already rich stockholders of big corporations. It has nothing to do with the birth of the Christ, they say. Away with gifts and glitter, bring the Christ back into Christmas, they say, but they never complain about the vast amounts of money going into mountains of food and oceans of alcohol served to already overfed and grossly overweight people on that merry day.
‘I take it that gluttony is a more acceptable way of honouring the birth of their Saviour than the giving of gifts, a Saviour by the way, who was ever concerned about your soul and never about your body,’ he says sarcastically.
‘And they seem to forget that the very first gifts ever given on this day were very expensive and rare stuff like myrrh and gold and silver, very much in line with the jewels of gold and diamonds, Rolex watches and play stations that is so popular today,’ I add bashfully, contributing my profound insight into human nature.
‘Every year I warn them,’ I tell the Cap in a very serious tone of voice. ‘Every year I tell them, take away the gifts and you alienate the children from the church. Christmas is a feast of joy, it stirs the imagination, it brings you into contact with the ineffable. There is nothing as beautiful to behold as the excitement in the eyes of little children in front of a Christmas tree, waiting for the gifts to be handed over by Dad in his silly red suit.
‘That excitement around the Christmas tree is what stays with the children for ever. It is a message of hope and wonder that is carried over from generation to generation, a message that used to inspire the people to fill the church benches form Sunday to Sunday eager to listen to more of the Good News that was promised that night in Bethlehem,’ I venture enthusiastically, almost frothing at the mouth with righteous anger.
‘And that naturally helped to fill the churches’ money trunks to the brim,’ says The Cap with a hint of scorn. ‘Maybe that is why they are so upset about the giving of gifts for Christmas these days? They are envious of the big corporations who are now receiving the money that used to go to the church!’
For the first time in ages me and the Cap seem to find common ground. We are on the same page and I am so thrilled that I launch into another of my new-found insights into human nature.
‘The church,’ I say, ‘neglected the children and lost an entire new generation of prospective, wealthy, yuppy church goers who left and took their children with them. Churches are closing down, or running empty with only small groups of scared old people still attending services mostly out of habit, but also as an insurance policy to get to Heaven the day they die.’
‘What else can you expect,’ says the Cap with open scorn. ‘You are a lot of self-centred morons still languishing self-assured in what Richard Rohr calls “the first half of life” phase. You are still driven by your infantile deficiency needs (the Red and Orange stage Ken Wilber’s system of human development). Even your church leaders (be they called minister, dominee, father, bishop, preacher, padre or master), are all basing their message, and castigating their flock into obedience, creating unthinking loyal little soldiers for the church, form a position of deficiency needs rather than growth needs as spiritually mature leaders should do.
‘As Rohr says, it does not bode well for the church. You do not train proficient medical practitioners by teaching University students grade 7 biology for eight years. By the same token you will never get psychologically or spiritually mature people if the leaders and/or teachers are not mature themselves. You morons still have a lot of growing up and waking up to do. It is time to move from a narcissistic, ego-centric way of thinking, to an inclusive soul-centric way of being.
‘” To move beyond family-of-origin stuff, local church stuff, cultural stuff, flag-and-country stuff is a path that few follow positively and with integrity.” says Richard Rohr, but you don’t understand him, so how in hell’s name are you brain dead morons ever going to understand a conversation between intellectual giants like David Bohm and Krishnamurti about the future of man?
‘It is no wonder that the latest onslaught on Christmas is again coming from the church, albeit the more fundamentalistic branch of the church. According to them, the church lied to them all these years about Christmas. Christmas is not a Christian celebration of the birth of Christ, but a Pagan feast celebrating god knows what with drinking and wild sex orgies. Christmas is thus an ungodly enterprise and must be abolished/banned/outlawed and if possible, burnt on the stake like in the good old days of witch hunting. The church must again be purged from the (fornicating) agents of Hell.
‘I do find it rather amusing. They are quite serious about the whole thing, even furious. Maybe it is the loss of the sex orgy part of the festivities that they are secretly upset about. To me it is tantamount to shunning the Ralls Royce car of today because it is based on the old model T Ford.
‘The atheists, devil worshippers and antichrists do not have to lift a finger to defeat the church. The church is ruining itself from the inside. And maybe it is a good thing. Maybe, somewhere in the future, something better will rise again from the ashes. Something worthy of the human soul,’ the Red Cap fumes.
‘You are a cruel judge,’ I reprimand The Cap. ‘We are doing the best we can. We are not the super human beings or the enlightened souls you want us to be, we are human, prone to human weaknesses.’
‘You are fools, and I cannot stand fools. You either wake up, or you perish. If you cannot comprehend the seriousness of your situation, you will perish. If perish is what you want, it is fine by me. Go kill yourself, Infinity will not be harmed.
‘Like Krishnamurti said: “How does one make another see all this? They haven’t time, they haven’t the energy, they haven’t even the inclination. They want to be amused.”
‘And by the way, a belated happy Chrismast to you, and may the new year be as happy as you want it to be,’ he says with open scorn.
He is a bastard. I think I hate him even more than the “Christmast-Must-Fall” brigade.
JINGLE TILLS JINGLE TILLS
Jingle all day long
o what fun it is to rob
the stupid Christians blind
HEY!
(repeat from line one until inflation rises a point)
Vreemd genoeg word nie net stupid Christians blind gerob oor kersfees nie, deur die ganse jaar jingle die bells aanhoudend maar niemand dink dit is verkeerd nie. Kersfees se geskenke word grootliks in die gees van liefde en welwillendheid gegee. Maar deur die jaar koop die gepeupel miljoene Rande se huise (wat hulle nie kan bekostig nie), en blink motors (vir ma en boetie en sussie) wat hulle nie kan bekostig nie, maar alles om die ego te streel. Hulle koop designer en “Label” klere en skoene en rits elke jaar oorsee en gaan op bootreise … en almal dink dit is normaal. Daar is niks mee verkeerd om geld op die manier te mors en die ryk direkteure van maatskappye en Banke nog ryker te maak nie. Maar waag dit net om Kersfees geld op jou kinders en geliefdes te spandeer, dan is jy stupid en selfs van die duiwel.
Hoeveel sin maak dit?
Soos Adyashanti sê: “Egoic insanity is seen as normal”
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music” Friedrich Nietzsche