God Bless Us Everyone

 

I’m guessing that most of the people who read my blog will instantly recognise the title as belonging to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, arguably one of the best known stories the world over.  There is something so satisfactory about the story of someone who learnt to hate Christmas falling back in love with it, and consequently most of the festive films and stories since - and therefore almost ever! - have taken this as their basis.  If you didn’t recognise the title then it’s time you bought yourself a copy of the book which is so short it will only take an hour or two to read.  It’s a lovely story with a dose of everything and not too much of anything.  Whilst it was this year’s choice for our renowned Sylvanian filming, it is very much a part of our every Christmas.

 

Though I love my current job, a part of me really misses teaching RE at this time of the year.  It’s about the only time when the whole class is guaranteed to all sensibly sit and take part in lessons.  Most of the year RE seemed to be the subject where kids could generally wreak havoc, but at Christmas the pupils really wanted to take part.  I don’t know why it should be the case except that, like A Christmas Carol, the story behind Christmas is all encompassing.  Please note, here: I am talking about Christmas, not solstice or any festival that Christians absorbed to make Christmas more appealing, but CHRISTMAS as in the Mass of Christ!  I know as well as anyone else that the Christians took on traditions that predated their existence, but it drives me mad to hear people saying that Christmas is not a Christian thing (the clue is in the name!).  It’s not surprising that religions have their festival of light in the darkest time of the year, and they do all give and take aspects of each others; it’s still happening today.

 

Sunday saw our church’s Nativity play.  It was very cute and the children did a good job, but I couldn’t help wondering why they felt the need to do the whole play from the point of view of the star.  It’s a play I’d seen before at a different church and I had the same thought then.  Novel, perhaps, but also a little unnecessary.  The Nativity story is so strong it doesn’t need to be re-written to be performed.  I loved studying the texts and meanings within the synoptic gospels’ telling of the birth of Christ and to me nothing could be stronger and more full of hope and meaning than the Christmas story.  Matthew with his account of the lineage, majesty and male importance throughout the story and Luke with his focus on humility, praise and the female perspective together provide a balanced telling of the story.  I love going off on theological and philosophical rants but I shall be good and try to steer back to the point of my blog!

 

At the risk of writing a sermon (for many years I did want to be a priest, so I’ve had all these ideas kicking around in my head) the Nativity’s main star wasn’t the star at all - sorry children!  It was in fact the baby who was given the title Immanuel - God With Us…  Hopefully you’re starting to see a connection!  In the last two blogs I’ve written about an insight into how I view Christmas and what my hope for Christmas would be, this blog is why I have these views and hopes, it’s what Christmas is about to me.  All too often people say “It’s not about the presents”, well of course it’s about the presents, as much as it is about any other aspect because each gift given in love is a reflection of the gift given in love at the Nativity.

 

I’m not going to make any apologies for writing an explicitly religious blog.  These are my beliefs and despite being absolutely, definitely not a Tory, I have to commend David Cameron on standing up and announcing his faith at a recent event celebrating the King James Bible.  And so, there is only one way to finish this blog (I’m sure you’ve worked out by now what that one way is!!!) which is to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - I hope 2012 is full of life, love and peace for you all.  And, as Tiny Tim [through Charles Dickens!] once observed:

 

God Bless Us Everyone!

The Perfect Christmas Present

Having been instructed to write a blog - here I am.  My blogs always begin their lives in one of two ways, either I am eagerly typing away as if there was no tomorrow or I sit for ages staring at a blank screen and hope that some inspiration and hopeful words will fall from the sky.  Today I am trying something different.  Today’s blog will be me typing things as I think them.

So often when I reach the end of the day and come to write my Twitter smiley thoughts I cannot remember everything that has happened.  At the moment my free time is being gobbled up in making Christmas presents - which I love - and filing my tax return - which I don’t love!  In the whirl of things to do it is very possible that somewhere along the way the really important things that are worth taking time over get lost.  Last night, as part of an attempt to watch all our Christmas films before Christmas (which is not going to happen because we have just got too many!) we watched The Grinch.  If you haven’t seen it, you’re missing out.  It’s not the ludicrously overacted parts, or the totally bizarre world that is created in it, it’s that age old idea of seeing beyond all the frothy frivolity and working out what really matters.  There is a line in the classic Band Aid single “Do They Know It’s Christmas” that irks me each time I hear it - and as I think that otherwise it is a fantastic song, I hear it quite often!

And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time

And the greatest gift they’ll get this year is life.

I think the greatest gift anyone will get this year is life.  It’s a shame they never thought to swap the word “greatest” for the word “only” (which is what I think they meant!) that might have made it a perfect song!

My light reading entertainment that travels everywhere with me - quite literally as it is shoved in my handbag! - is Philip Glenister’s nostalgic book “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be”.  [It is quite possible that at this point my blog readers will now be utterly confused at the giant tangent I seem to have taken here, but hopefully you will see the point shortly!]  The final section is without a doubt one of my favourite parts of the book where he carefully lays out Christmas as it was when he was a child with a real fondness.  While the image of one brother becoming irate enough to tip up the Monopoly board after the use of some extreme house rules is perhaps the part that makes me chuckle the most, what I really love is the way Christmas really seemed to be a family event.

And now to tie up these rambling observations:
Without meaning to sound too twee, but hoping that some of my point reaches my blog readers, we shall be having all the trimmings.  The turkey, beef, ham, sausages and bacon are all coming from our local butcher, the tree shall be set up and decorated with hundreds of lights and baubles collected over so many years, and there will be presents stacked under it come Christmas day.  And, yes, I will be hanging up a stocking and I do believe in Santa Claus/Father Christmas/Saint Nicolas or whatever you wish to call him - he is, after all, everything that the season stands for in one figure - but I know that come Christmas morning if I have my family, life and health I will have had my best present.

In the meantime, I’ll plough on with my tax return and endeavour to get my presents completed in time… Wish me luck!

The Best Things Are Worth Waiting For

It is good to be back!  Yes, after two months of turmoil my room is finally finished and I have been reunited with Arty, my trusty laptop, so here is the latest instalment of McEwan’s Musings.  The room is everything that I hoped it would be and to those of you that have persevered with my mutterings and ramblings on Twitter, many thanks for bearing with me!!

My room is now absolutely amazing.  It is like being in a cabin on a boat and is more than I could have hoped for.  The décor is everything I wanted and perhaps the most exciting thing of all is that I now have a desk, at which Arty and I can spend many happy and creative hours.  Sorting out the room has taken so long and so much effort that when it was just finished and assembled on Monday night I immediately felt ill - I always get like that when something is completed!

But so much has happened this week!  The ABRSM exams came back with glowing reports for my two pupils and on Thursday I was invited to play for and talk with the local Brownies who are working for their entertainment badge.  A quick recap of the last time I performed for anybody made me realise that it was two and a half years ago and I felt nervous accordingly.  But despite the nerves the appreciation of being asked was great and the anticipation adjusted accordingly.

There’s a lot of anticipation in the air at the moment.  I love Advent perhaps more than Christmas.  The lead up, excitement and general warmth of people’s attitudes is so encouraging and heartening.  The smiles become more frequent and the promise of good things in store sees us through the darkest period of the year - although I have to here admit that winter is the season I love the most and despite the night having deepened by 4 in the afternoon and the temperatures dropping accordingly there is very little that can dampen my spirit of bubbly excitement.

Waiting is something that becomes easier with age, though, and there can be no denying that.  Many of my younger pupils seem fit to burst with the anticipation of Advent leading up to the goal that is ultimately Christmas.  Many people grumble at the way in which Christmas appears in shops before they suppose it is time to, and I - yes, even me! - feel uncomfortable at how it seems to be pushing further and further forward in the year.  Soon we might really be having the commercial Christmas all year round - as well as the spiritual one we are encouraged to carry in our hearts (as Charles Dickens’ wrote about in his immortal story, “A Christmas Carol”).  I suppose it is a bad thing, but it also carries with it a sense of excitement and wonder that is not lacking but frequently overlooked in today’s world.

I’m like a kid at Christmas - not the goat kind, the child kind! - our Christmases are truly amazing and without a doubt one of the highlights of any year.  My brilliant new room is already filling up with wrapped up parcels ready for distributing by post or hand, and already I am eager for the Christmas tree to make its appearance the weekend before Christmas.  I can’t help but smile with giddiness at it all!  Perhaps it is all about the promise; perhaps that is what makes Advent as delightful as Christmas.  As an adult we seem to rush about here, there and everywhere, always in a rush, but here is something that cannot be rushed, something that we have to wait for and it is that which fans the spark of anticipation and allows we busy grown-ups a chance to recapture what it was like to be an excited child.

And this blog is dedicated to the lady who served us today in Tesco.  Excitement can rub off on people and so can a pleasant smile, I hope our excitement at Christmas shopping and our warm smiles brightened up her day and encouraged her to brighten up other peoples.