Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Material Objects and What They Mean

Somewhat strangely, I am writing my 26th post on the 25th day of the month. This is to say that I am writing on Christmas. I hate working on Christmas, but I want to have at least one post every day. So here are a few notes on the Christmas season:

Recently (meaning within the past fifty years) Dr. Seuss, Pope Benedict and a new documentary called "What Would Jesus Buy?" have protested the materialization of Christmas. I understand where they are coming from. Nothing is more important about Christmas than remembering the birth of Christ--that's what Christmas is for, actually--and something about some rich man somewhere getting some friends some presents which are all the same just seems wrong. But I think that the critics of Christmas--as is--should devote more attention to distinguishing between material goods and materialism.

Yes, materialism is a problem. I don't think that we ought to love inanimate objects in the way that we love people; you can quote me on that. And while I think that receiving is a charitable action in the same way, though perhaps to a lesser degree, that giving is, I do not think that it should be the only part of the Christmas experience that we value. (Oddly enough, it is the people who do not go to shopping malls to enjoy only receiving.) But giving is an act of charity, and, while we ought to give spiritual gifts as well as material, material gifts are also things to be valued. They are, in a sense, an expression of affection, much in the same way that money is an expression of labor. For this reason, while some people may moralize about materialism, I am not discouraged. Of course, it may be true that people buy to distract them from the true meaning of the holidays, but the fact that they are buying for others, rather than themselves, is a marked improvement from what is experienced far too often. And for this reason, I think people crowding into shopping malls during this time of year, on communal rather than cultural grounds, is something to advocate, not to condemn.

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