So Christmas has come and gone--Christmas Day, that is. Technically we are still in the season of Christmas. But we in America are so quick to pack up the decorations, put away the lights, turn off the special music and move on to preparing for the Super Bowl (usually brushing past Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with a mere nod of the head in the direction of civil rights or black history.) I am not opposed to the Super Bowl, I just think we shortchange ourselves!
We feasted through Advent, with office parties and family parties and neighborhood parties and school parties and, well you get the point! And so we were worn out by the time we got to Christmas Day itself! We will rally a bit for New Year's Eve, but that is mostly an excuse for excessive drinking, late night partying and journalistic pontifications about year's best (those ubiquitous "Best of" columns) and the year ahead diatribes (you know, "Forecasting 2016" articles). And as for Epiphany? Aside from our Hispanic neighbors who enjoy the day as El Dia de Tres Reyes, most of us forget it even exists. January 6th, a holiday? What's that?
It's sad, really, that we've lost the fasting/feasting cycles of life in postmodern America. There are, of course, those who fast unintentionally, the poor, the hungry, the homeless, and those who engage in non-stop feasting, indulging in every whim. But intentional fasting, going without, and intentional feasting, enjoying the good things of life in a healthy, happy way--that's a lost art for most.
As I move into 2016 I wonder how I can rectify that in my own life. Maybe you'd like to join me. Maybe we can use the rest of Christmastide to figure it out!
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