Wednesday, October 22, 2008

It's not even Halloween yet and I'm singing Christmas music

Tis the season to start carving pumpkins and jumping in piles of leaves. After spending last weekend in Massachusetts, I was all stoked about Fall and leaves and hot chocolate... okay, maybe not hot chocolate because I think I drank too much of that last weekend and I am really sick of it right now, but I was digging the whole fall thing. Then, I came home and realized I had to start Christmas Choir practice on Tuesday! Yikes! Tuesday!! Yes, that would be Tuesday, October 21st. That is a full 66 days before Christmas (in case you were wondering). That is insane. Normally, we wouldn't start practice until the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. However, this year we are recording a CD and if we want to have it available for purchase before Christmas, we must have it recorded by early November which means we have to start practicing now.

Let me tell you how odd it is to sing about Christmas and the baby Jesus and snow and wise men when the leaves are just starting to turn colors. It's more than odd, it's downright disturbing. I swear, it seems like only a few weeks ago that we were singing this music for Christmas Eve and now, it's time to get it all out again and prepare for all the hoopla again. It's bad enough when the stores go from 4th of July merchandise to Back to School stuff, straight into Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas all at the same time. Before you know it, we will just have Halthanksmas--- complete with ghosts, goblins, and witches riding on the backs of turkeys looking for the Baby Jesus who is dressed in his Hathanksmas garb chillin' with Mary and Joseph who are gnawing on turkey legs and stuffing next to the manger watching some football on their flat screen television. What a sight that would be to behold. I think we should throw in a few fireworks for good measure, just to liven things up a bit.

I think we have become such a commercialized, consumer driven society we have forgotten the significance of these holidays and why we celebrate them. It's like we can't wait to get the kids back in school so we can decorate the pumpkins and then before we even have the pumpkin carved, we are already moving on to Thanksgiving and turkey, time off school, and then before the bird is even in the oven, we are shopping for Christmas and decorating the tree and making New Year's Resolutions because that is how the commercial world treats those events, just stuff them down our throats and entice us to buy all the stuff you think we need, before we need it because if you wait to buy it when the holiday actually gets close, you are out of luck because the commercial world has already moved on to the next holiday.

I remember as a child that it took forever for Halloween to arrive once we started school. Back in those days, school didn't even start as soon as it does now. We actually didn't have as much time to wait as kids do these days. And then, it took a long time to get to Thanksgiving and the first long break from school. Forget about Christmas, that was only a glimmer in our mind's eye because it might as well have been a million light years away because it took forever to arrive and was over too soon. Now, maybe because I am older and times goes quicker, the days fly by me so quickly, I don't have time to catch my breath between blinks of my eye. So many things happen so fast and we, as a society, never slow down to enjoy them because it is always rush, rush, rush, you must get from point a to point b to point c and if you don't do it fast enough, you get left behind.

Maybe I am old fashioned and I just want to take things easy and enjoy the simple life and go back to a time when things weren't so busy, but I doubt I am the only person who feels like the world is moving so fast, if I blink I will miss something. I think there are times when all of us feel a little like that and we wonder what would happen if just stopped it all and refused to buy into all the commercial marketing and pressure. However, that really isn't an option because we are an instant gratification society and now, now, now is the only speed we know.

So, I had my first Christmas Choir practice last night and I am getting myself ready for Advent. Yes, they completely skip Advent. The time when we should be waiting in stillness and quiet, we are rushing all around making sure Aunt Carol has the right size sweater and Missy Jane will get her favorite dolly under the Christmas tree. We don't even stop to wait and remember who we are waiting for and what we are really celebrating. It's all about getting on to the next event. It never ends.

I've done enough ranting for one day. I am still wiped out from the weekend. I think it is time to go to bed. Until next time, Diva Divine

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