The Baby Jesus will appear in the Creche on Christmas Eve. (Author Photo)
We will return after the Holidays. In the meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays in 2024, and Happy New Year in 2025!
(Author Photo)
Please read the disclaimer. ©2024 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved. Interested in many things including Claims and Bad Faith Law? Sign up for a free subscription to my Substack newsletter.
In 2024, Christmas falls on December 25 as always. Hanukkah begins on December 25 at dusk this year. Kwanzaa begins the next day, December 26.
Merry Christmas! (Author Photo)
Hope is a spiritual muscle that needs exercise.
Hope is not optimism. The present day in particular does not generate optimism. There is no optimism for the near future at least.
But hope is long term. Using Rebecca Solnit’s definitions, optimism is a lot like its opposite characteristic, pessimism. Where pessimism is always certain that things will go wrong, optimism is always certain that it too knows the outcome which for an optimist will always be a good one.
Hope on the other hand, as Solnit phrases it, is the belief that things can get better even as we are fully aware of how bad things may be in the present moment. Hope lives in uncertainty but looks forward to working toward the possibility of a positive outcome, whereas optimism is always certain that the outcome will be positive.
I have found it useful to apply Rebecca Solnit’s definition of hope to the present day and compare it to Occupied Israel at the time of the Birth of Christ. I would like to share the comparison with you and hope that you will find it useful too.
Unlike today in America, then there was an entrenched regime. It was already in place. It was led by figures like Ceasar Augustus and a son of Herod the Great. Later it would be led by figures like Pontius Pilate and another king named Herod.
Today the United States looks to an incoming regime which in many ways is clearly in charge of the press, the Republicans in the House of Representatives, and our psyches already. They are in our heads. That is, they are in our heads unless we concentrate on what is essential to our daily lives.
Hope is the thing that is essential to our daily lives.
The belief that something more is coming. That indeed it is already here.
It can be misleading to look at the nation as it is now. The headlines take over the truth. The truth is not in the headlines.
As I wrote at the beginning, Christmas, Hannukah and Kwanzaa all fall at the same time this year. To a lawyer like me, a trifecta like that is not just a coincidence.
It signifies that something is at work. Something even more important than a jury verdict or the unchallenged opinion of a judge.
As I see it, Faith, Hope and Charity are at work alongside one another in this shared Holiday Season. Faith is the obvious starting point. Faith is central to all religious traditions.
Beyond that, faith is particularly needed at the present time and I do not mean at the Holiday Season. To me faith means focus. In writing this piece, for example, I have forced myself to focus on the Holidays and Hope at a time when there is so much temptation to comment on other things. I have no doubt for example that Joe Biden will sign a defense appropriations bill that strips healthcare away from some soldiers’ dependents because the dependents seek gender-affirming care which is covered under their military health insurance. Moreover, no reasonable person could mistake Chuck Schumer, Elon Musk, and Merrick Garland, or any other trio of politicians, billionaires, and nitwits for the Three Wise Men.
And so I do my best to avoid writing about all that stuff and concentrate instead on what is important. As I said, faith to me means focus. Having faith means staying focused.
Charity is next. At this time of year especially, it brings the familiarity and ease of sharing with others and caring about someone besides myself.
Sharing for my family means sharing food, clothing, donations of time and money. Or as many Catholic parishes like to frame it, donations of time, talent, and treasure.
Caring for us has manifested itself in texts, telephone calls, cards, and greetings. Hearing “Merry Christmas” can be uplifting all by itself, nothing more is required.
Next, hope involves looking around and taking a good look at the world with fresh eyes. Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are still around. Centuries have been spent in the vain attempt to eradicate them but the attempts have failed miserably.
Hope remains. Hope abides. And hope lives.
Despite all attempts to remove it from every person’s way of living, from our daily lives, from our heads, hope remains.
What better sign of this is there, than Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa all coming to us at the same time in this particular year?
The Holy Days – or what we can also call the Hopeful Days – are stronger than many people. Hope does not obey in advance. Hope does not resign in the face of hardship. Hope is much, much stronger than all of that.
Hope should not be judged by the people in power or who are about to come into power. Hope should be judged by people like us, people who refuse to make concessions to evil by calling it something else, but who instead rejoice in the truth.
And the truth this year, in 2024 soon to continue into 2025, is that hope is here and that hope, which thrives in the long term, will prevail in the long term.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all in 2024, and to all a Happy New Year throughout 2025!
Please read the disclaimer. ©2024 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved. Interested in many things including Claims and Bad Faith Law? Sign up for a free subscription to my Substack newsletter.