CONK!
You really can feel things slowing down after the first week of December. Whether you celebrate the season or not, people’s focus is elsewhere and attention divided by their need to purchase gifts, celebrations and parties, and if you live in a big media city, the vacation you plan to take outside of that city. One of the reasons I loved staying in the city when I lived in Los Angeles is because everyone left! Getting everywhere in 20 minutes was indeed a thing for a while and I relished it, if only for two weeks of the year.
Here in the South, things not only get even slower, but the celebrations are ramped up. Many people had their houses decorated (clutch the pearls) a week before Thanksgiving! I’ve attended at least three Christmas markets since Thanksgiving, and there have been a ton more advertised. Only two Christmas parties on the books so far, but it’s early yet; and one impromptu Christmas concert was just the ticket to pull me fully into this season of love and giving—that, and my fully decorated tree.
Suffice to say, the holidays become the thing, even when it may not be your thing. I personally love them, not only because I do believe in Jesus and the meaning of Christmas, but because I love the way it brings the world together. As Hamilton Wright Mabie said about Christmas,
“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”
And it’s a lovely thing to live someplace where it is pure celebration and reverence, rather than perfunctory observations, business obligations, and commercialism.
But there is still news to report upon, whether it’s a final presidential debate of the year, an often forgotten conservative President of the United States, or the culture war battles. Those wheels don’t slow down, even when everything else does.
It’s The Week That Was.
and