Reason for the Season (A Song Review)
Thanksgiving has come and gone. The stuffing has been fully digested and we’re on to bigger and better things - Christmas! For the record, of course, I’m still thankful af. Thankfulness is a constant state of mind and all that...
Christmas szn wasted no time. Trees are up, lights are strung, eggnog is flowing from the Christmas teat. We shall all suckle until we are full.
My favorite institution of the season is the music. Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra are classics, but my favorite is from an unlikely source: Simon & Garfunkel. Their song “7 O’clock News / Silent Night” is the realest Christmas song you’ll hear. It’s a classic slapper and it reflects how we all feel about the world. It’s a total mood, and not in the basic white girl way. Don’t believe me? Before you proceed, give the song a listen and tell me what emotions you feel.
The song starts with the traditional “Silent Night” chorus. Quickly, an old-timey sexy news voice begins to read headlines behind the chorus.
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“Holy infant so tender and mild.”
“Comedian Lenny Bruce died of what was believed to be an overdose of narcotics.”
“Silent Night, Holy night.”
“In Chicago Richard Speck, accused murderer of nine student nurses, was brought before a grand jury today for indictment.”
“Holy Night, all is calm, all is bright.”
“The nurses were found stabbed an strangled in their Chicago apartment.”
“Sleep in heavenly peace.”
“Richard Nixon says the US should look forward to 5 more years of war.”
“Sleep in heavenly peace.”
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America 2018, you can imagine the parallel. Migrants at the Mexico border, Silent Night, Russian tanks angled at the Ukraine, Holy Night, 11 killed in Pittsburgh synagogue, Sleep in heavenly peace.
In our personal lives, this happens too. This year - damn, the past two weeks - has included the highest peaks of community and lowest valleys of loneliness, sometimes in the same moments. I can get dinner with the boys, which is really rich and fulfilling, and still be worried about other relationships that are suffering because of my mistakes. I’m at a wedding in Birmingham celebrating one of my best friends, anxious about what’s happening at home in Austin.
This song captures the rzn for the szn, if you will. Hot chocolate and shitty Christmas movies makes for a great month! But it doesn’t make our problems go away. Christmas is about recognizing that the good around us overshadows the bad.
How can I possibly embrace good and bad at the same time? I’ve been hoping for Instagram-perfect moments without any sign of fear or loneliness during the wait. Or the opposite, I romanticize the moments of struggle as pure pain that I endure chivalrously out of willpower. Then after struggling, I power through with new resolute wisdom and strength. Neither will ever be true.
The song reminds me that in difficult moments, there is peace. For me, this is the birth of Christ - the ultimate peace, which overshadows every other difficulty in life. When I recognize the gifts I’ve been given, I have peace about the turmoil in the world and in my life. Though, the peace comes with a challenge to carry the message of hope to others who need the same. No matter what you believe, this is a challenge worth taking upon yourself this holiday szn.
All-in-all, this song is definitely better than that disgrace that keeps Mariah Carey famous. That song is the challenge that weighs most heavily on me during the szn, tbfh. Don’t @ me.
Merry Christmas,
Stephen Moreno
