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The History of Santa Claus

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Emma Kenney

One of the most beloved children’s characters of all time is Santa Claus. There have been dozens of movies and books based on him, and nearly every continent has its own version or versions of him, but how did this so well-known character get his origins?

There are a few different ideas about how Santa Claus came to be, but the most accepted version is the one involving St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was a monk born in roughly 280 A.D. near turkey. He quickly became known for both his fierce defense of Christianity and his kindness. One of the best examples of his caring spirit is one that was quite well known when he was still alive. Three girls were about to be taken into forced prostitution for life because their father was in deep debt. St. Nicholas secretly gave him three bags of gold to pay off the debt and gain his daughters back. Because of this and similar instances, St. Nicholas became known as the patron saint of children. According to Brian Handwerk, a writer for National Geographic:

The original saint was a Greek born 280 years after Christ who became bishop of Myra, a small Roman town in modern Turkey. Nicholas was neither fat nor jolly but developed a reputation as a fiery, wiry, and defiant defender of church doctrine during the “Great Persecution,” when Bibles were put to the torch and priests made to renounce Christianity or face execution. Nicholas defied these edicts and spent years in prison before Constantine brought Christianity to prominence in his empire. Nicholas’s fame lived long after his death (on December 6 of some unknown year in the mid-fourth century) because he was associated with many miracles, and reverence for him continues to this day independent of his Santa Claus connection.

Nicholas rose to prominence among the saints because he was the patron of so many groups, ranging from sailors to entire nations. “By about 1200,” explained University of Manitoba historian Gerry Bowler, author of Santa Claus: A Biography, “he became known as a patron of children and magical gift bringer because of two great stories from his life.”

In the better-known tale, three young girls are saved from a life of prostitution when young Bishop Nicholas secretly delivers three bags of gold to their indebted father, which can be used for their dowries. “The other story is not so well known now but was enormously well known in the Middle Ages,” Bowler said. Nicholas entered an inn whose keeper had just murdered three boys and pickled their dismembered bodies in basement barrels. The bishop not only sensed the crime, but resurrected the victims as well. “That’s one of the things that made him the patron saint of children.” For several hundred years, circa 1200 to 1500, St. Nicholas was the unchallenged bringer of gifts and the toast of celebrations centered around his day, December 6. The strict saint took on some aspects of earlier European deities, like the Roman Saturn or the Norse Odin, who appeared as white-bearded men and had magical powers like flight. He also ensured that kids toed the line by saying their prayers and practicing good behavior.

After his death, the story of St. Nicholas delivering gifts to children on his saint day (December 6th) was invented. However, after the Reformation saints began to fall out of favor with many people. This caused a problem to arise: people still wanted a day of giving gifts to their children but no longer wanted to claim St. Nicholas was the one behind it. This led to the story of Jesus as a baby delivering gifts to children on Christmas; however, baby Jesus wasn’t very scary and parents didn’t like the idea of having Jesus threaten the children. Once again, the story was adapted to depict Santa Clause as an almost demonic being who would whip or kidnap naughty and disobedient children.

The Dutch, however, didn’t like this version and reverted back to St. Nick. The Dutch brought this with them when they sailed to America. In the earlier 1770s they gathered to honor the saint. A newspaper from New York wrote about the Dutch and their St. Nicholas, then known as Sinter Klaas. After this it was temporarily thrown aside as Christmas became mainly a pagan drinking holiday.

However, this changed in the 1800s when writers made an effort to portray Christmas as a family holiday. This was first done in a book by Washington Irving, stating St. Nicholas gave presents to good children and switches to bad ones. Later, this was adapted again in an anonymous poem that completely tied St. Nick to Christmas, ridding him of any religious ties and giving him the name “Santa Claus.” The next year, 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote “The Night Before Christmas” for his children, which is still extremely poplar today. The book was first published anonymously the following year. It was thanks to this story that Santa Claus is known for having reindeer that fly his sleigh.

When Moore’s story was published a political cartoonist by the name of Thomas Nast sketched and published the imagery of Santa Claus that is still popular today. Both Moore’s story and Nast’s drawing depicted Santa Claus as a large and jolly old man with a rosy face and a big white beard. It was because of Nast Santa Claus in his red coat hat with white fur and black boots became popular with the majority of people. It is also thanks to him Santa Claus is associated with the North Pole, Mrs. Claus, and elves.

Also around this time, John Pintard (the man who founded the New York Historical Society) began promoting St. Nicholas as a patron saint of American society. This caused people to revisit the tradition of St. Nicholas delivering gifts to good children around Christmas and have open minds about the new version of Santa and traditions surrounding him that were being presented to the public. According to the St. Nicholas Center:

After the American Revolution, New Yorkers remembered with pride their colony’s nearly-forgotten Dutch roots. John Pintard, the influential patriot and antiquarian who founded the New York Historical Society in 1804, promoted St. Nicholas as patron saint of both society and city. In January 1809, Washington Irving joined the society and on St. Nicholas Day that same year, he published the satirical fiction, Knickerbocker’s History of New York, with numerous references to a jolly St. Nicholas character. This was not the saintly bishop, rather an elfin Dutch burgher with a clay pipe. These delightful flights of imagination are the source of the New Amsterdam St. Nicholas legends: that the first Dutch emigrant ship had a figurehead of St. Nicholas; that St. Nicholas Day was observed in the colony; that the first church was dedicated to him; and that St. Nicholas comes down chimneys to bring gifts. Irving’s work was regarded as the “first notable work of imagination in the New World.”

The New York Historical Society held its first St. Nicholas anniversary dinner on December 6, 1810. John Pintard commissioned artist Alexander Anderson to create the first American image of Nicholas for the occasion. Nicholas was shown in a gift-giving role with children’s treats in stockings hanging at a fireplace. The accompanying poem ends, „Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend! To serve you ever was my end, If you will, now, me something give, I’ll serve you ever while I live.”

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was added to the Santa Claus story in 1939 when Robert L. May wrote a poem to help bring customers to his store. The poem tells the story of a reindeer born with a glowing red nose. This, at first, leads him to be ridiculed and excluded by all the other reindeers and even Santa. However, one year on Christmas Eve heavy fog appeared and hindered Santa’s ability to see clearly. He then realized Rudolph was the solution and made him the 9th member of his elite team of reindeer.  The year it was published, nearly 2.5 million copies were sold. 7 years later, when it was reissued, over 3.5 million copies were sold. In 1964 it was made into a popular film narrated by Burl Ives.

After Santa Claus became popular in America the legend finally made its way back to Europe to replace their demonic child-abusing versions of St. Nicholas, though not everyone was on board with the new tamer version. Santa was actually not popular in Russia until the 1900s when Stalin came to power.

It was ultimately World War II that caused the love of Santa Claus known today. America sort of brought their legend of Santa Claus with them everywhere they went, and it was much more well received than the Russian Father Frost.

American stores, specifically those of New York, are mostly responsible for the Santa Clauses at shopping centers. In the 1820s stores began using Santas to help advertise for Christmas shopping. Roughly 20 years later, in 1841, one store in Philadelphia set up a life-sized model of Santa Claus. Hundreds upon hundreds of children came to see him that year. Other stores adopted this as well, but they soon found out it was easier, let alone more appealing to the children, to have a live Santa Claus sit in the store. At the end of the century the Salvation Army began having its workers dress up as Santa Claus to help gain donations to pay for Christmas dinners for homeless or impoverished families. This tradition has been in place ever since.

This is, however, not the only version of Santa Claus still in existence today. Countries all over the world have slightly modified interpretations of the jolly old holiday gift-bringer. In France, children sing songs to Pere Noel and leave out shoes for him to fill with sweets and possibly small gifts while they are sleeping. In Mexico Santo Clos brings children larger gifts around Christmas. However, they receive smaller gifts after the New Year from Reyes Magos. In Russia children receive gifts from a woman named Babushka instead of from Santa Claus or Father Christmas. In Japan children receive Christmas gifts from a monk named Hotel-osho. Children are told he has eyes in the back of his head and can see everything  so they will have extra good behavior around the holidays. Some Japanese families choose to ignore the legend of Hotel-osho and use the American version of Santa and his reindeer instead. In China children hang stockings to be filled with small gifts and all kinds of sweets by Dun Che Lao Ren (Christmas Old Man) during one of their festivals. Children will receive more small gifts and treats during the Chinese New Year. Some children in Norway receive their gifts from a goat-like gnome called Julebukk. Other children receive their gifts from Julenissen (Santa Claus) on Christmas Eve. Children in Ukraine might receive a few small gifts from Father Frost.

The history of Santa Claus is long and sometimes confusing. Cultures all over the world have different ideas of how this person came to be and what form he (or sometimes she) takes. However, two things stand true throughout every culture that tells of some Christmas season gift-bearer: parents want to pass on the generosity and joy that comes with Christmas gift giving to their children, and to some extent culture has shaped the way Santa Claus is portrayed and probably will continue to do so for many years to come. The evolution and history of Santa Claus is far from over


Bibliography

Handwerk, Brian. “St. Nicholas to Santa: The Surprising Origins of Mr. Claus.” National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 20 Dec. 2013. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.

“Origin of Santa.” St. Nicholas Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.

“Santa Claus.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2010. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.

“Santa’s Net.” Christmas Traditions Around the World. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.

Where Does Christmas Come From?

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Destiny Phillips Coats

“Jesus is the reason for the season.” That is a quotation we in the Church have heard many times. Christmas from a Christian perspective is the day of the year set aside to honor the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nativity plays and special church gatherings/services are designed specifically to honor Jesus on Christmas —His “birthday.” In Scripture Christmas is not a designated holiday like the Passover or Rosh Hashanah celebrations of the Jewish culture. So where then did this initial celebration come from along with the famous traditions millions of families have adopted as their own on the Christmas holiday? The answer is pagan rituals. Many Christmas traditions done all throughout the world and within the Church are indeed of pagan origin. Keep on reading for the specific origins of the Christmas holiday itself, Christmas trees, festivals/gatherings, Santa, gift giving, caroling, and a few traditions outside the States.

December 25th was first recognized as Christmas Day sometime around 273 AD. The first recordings of a “nativity” celebration by the Roman Church were in 336 AD. Because the Bible or other historical accounts do not exactly specify the actual date of Jesus’ birthday, we can never really know when He was really born. As Christians of the modern era, we could not imagine not celebrating Christmas because of its significance. The early Church however, felt the holiday was of complete irrelevance because it has no Scriptural backing. As the Church began to evangelize to pagan peoples, to keep their winter festivals they changed the focus to Jesus and over time the holiday was adopted.  But before a specific date could be settled upon, it was custom Jesus’ birth celebration was originally combined with the Epiphany celebration.

Epiphany or Theophany, also known as Three Kings’ Day, is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God in his Son as human in Jesus Christ. In Western Christianity, the feast commemorates principally the visit of the Magi to the Christ child, and thus Jesus’ physical manifestation to the Gentiles. Moreover, the feast of the Epiphany, in some Western Christian denominations, also initiates the liturgical season of Epiphanytide. Eastern Christians, on the other hand, commemorate the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, seen as his manifestation to the world as the Son of God.

As time went on and evidence appeared from various historians of Christ’s birthday supposedly on December 25th, the day was then adopted by the Church as the day upon which his birth should be celebrated.

Similar to now, early Christians desired to convert nonbelievers to Christianity to grow the church and fulfill “The Great Commission.” The early Church dealt with mainly two other competing religions of their time, Judaism and Islam. However, most of their time working to convert nonbelievers was spent on the polytheistic people groups that occupied most of the world at the time, pagans. “Paganism is a term that developed among the Christian community of southern Europe during late antiquity to describe religions other than their own, Judaism, or Islam — the three Abrahamic religions.” Specific Christmas traditions inherently pagan are the decorating of a tree, feasts/festivals, mistletoe, and decorating with lights.

The Christmas tree as we now know it, is traditionally a green tree picked out by a family to be placed in the home, decorated, and the designated spot for presents. Decorating indoors with greenery during the winter solstice dates all the way back to the Roman Empire. It was first seen as a Christian Christmas ritual in the 17th century by Germanic pagan converts. During this period on Christmas Eve a nativity play of Adam and Eve was performed in churches as a way to honor/remember creation. A tree was used during this play called the “Paradise Tree” and decorated with fruit to represent the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The winter solstice is an astronomical occurrence that marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Paganism celebrates this day with a festival gathering. Festival gatherings throughout the winter months were also very common in paganism due to the cold nature of the season. Agriculturally speaking the harvest is during the fall so the time to “eat, drink, and be merry” is in the winter season. Also because the winter is very cold, the desire to congregate and be warm was a catalyst for many different types of pagan festivals then kept and altered slightly during the spread of Christianity.

Another pagan ritual is mistletoe. It originates from Norse mythology and folklore dating back to the eighth century. The Norse god Balder was the best loved of all the gods. His mother was Frigga, goddess of love and beauty. She loved her son so much she wanted to make sure no harm would come to him. So she went through the world, securing promises from everything that sprang from the four elements — fire, water, air, and earth — that they would not harm her beloved Balder. Leave it to Loki, a sly, evil spirit, to find the loophole. The loophole was mistletoe. He made an arrow from its wood. To make the prank nastier, he took the arrow to Hoder, Balder’s brother, who was blind. Guiding Hoder’s hand, Loki directed the arrow at Balder’s heart, and he fell dead. Frigga’s tears became the mistletoe’s white berries. In the version of the story with a happy ending, Balder is restored to life, and Frigga is so grateful she reverses the reputation of the offending plant, making it a symbol of love and promising to bestow a kiss upon anyone who passes under it.

Decorating with lights is now viewed as a fun family affair. Everyone participates in putting lights up, going to look at various lights around neighborhoods, and people even go to festivals of lights. Lighting our homes and various buildings during the winter months originates with pagans lighting bonfires and candles during the winter solstice to celebrate the anticipated return of light back to the earth. The god Sol Invictus was also celebrated with lights during the winter months. The early Christians adopted this ritual and changed the meaning to be a representation of Jesus as “the light of the world,” the light that guided the Magi to Jesus in the early first century AD. In our every-increasingly secular world, putting up lights on houses is just a common tradition amongst families during the Christmas season.

In elementary school I remember vividly getting in trouble for telling other children Santa Claus was not real. There was one instance I was made to write a formal apology to a classmate for denouncing the existence of Santa. Santa Claus, the omniscient gift giver who travels the world in one night to deliver presents, has existed since the third century. Santa Claus is the English version of the Dutch “Sinter Klaas” or Saint Nicholas. St. Nicholas died supposedly on December 6 AD 342. December 6th was then a day set aside for a feast in his honor. Saint Nicholas was born in Turkey in AD 282 in the city Patras. He came from a wealthy family and was made the Bishop of Myra at a fairly young age. Because of his generosity and acts of kindness on earth like giving gifts to the poor, the Dutch believed he returned on December 6th to give out presents or punishments. From this belief of the Dutch other tales were developed in his remembrance and variations of it have been told over the course of history. Dependent upon the country, “Sinter Klaas” is honored differently. The two main tales told after his death are titled The Three Daughters and The Children at the Inn.

The first story shows his generosity. There were three unmarried girls living in Patras who came from a respectable family, but they could not get married because their father had lost all his money and had no dowries for the girls. The only thing the father thought he could do was to sell them when they reached the age to marry. Hearing of the imminent fate, Nicholas secretly delivered a bag of gold to the eldest daughter, who was at the right age for marriage but had despaired of ever finding a suitor. Her family was thrilled at her good fortune and she went on to become happily married. When the next daughter came of age, Nicholas also delivered gold to her. According to the story handed down, Nicholas threw the bag through the window and it landed in the daughter’s stocking, which she had hung by the fire to dry. Another version claims Nicholas dropped the bag of gold down the chimney. By the time the youngest daughter was old enough for marriage, the father was determined to discover his daughters’ benefactor. He, quite naturally, thought she might be given a bag of gold too, so he decided to keep watch all night. Nicholas, true to form, arrived and was seized, and his identity and generosity were made known to all. As similar stories of the bishop’s generosity spread, anyone who received an unexpected gift thanked St. Nicholas.

Another one of the many stories told about St. Nicholas explains why he was made a patron saint of children. On a journey to Nicaea, he stopped on the way for the night at an inn. During the night he dreamt a terrible crime had been committed in the building. His dream was quite horrifying. In it three young sons of a wealthy Asian, on their way to study in Athens, had been murdered and robbed by the innkeeper. The next morning he confronted the innkeeper and forced him to confess. Apparently the innkeeper had previously murdered other guests and salted them down for pork or had dismembered their bodies and pickled them in casks of brine. The three boys were still in their casks, and Nicholas made the sign of the cross over them and they were restored to life.

From these tales people practiced gift-giving during the winter months and telling the tale of Saint Nicholas. The version of Santa Claus we have today has been tainted from the original version because of the immersion of the Christian society into the pagan cultures near the end of the first millennium. Sometimes in America we think our version of everything is universal everywhere. The American version of Santa Claus is an example of something that is not. Dependent upon the country, different tales have been passed down and changed by generations and generations of people.

Caroling is a time for people to gather in groups and sing songs about Christmas. Caroling is often done by choir groups or churches who travel through neighborhoods or various venues to share the gift of song with others. Caroling, believe it or not, is also a pagan ritual. The word “carol” means to sing and dance. During the first millennium many cultures “caroled” throughout the year as a means to celebrate during certain occurrences or praise acts of their gods or nature. Caroling during the winter months was originally a big part of the winter solstice festival. Tons of people would gather in a village square to sing and dance, praising nature for the return of longer days and shorter nights. When the Christians began converting the pagans, they found it very difficult to break them away from the many gatherings and rituals throughout the year. These evangelists instead tried to change the purpose of these festivals to be about Christ is some way. The most popular festival with a change of focus is our modern day Christmas. By changing the focus of the winter solstice festival, they also gave them Christian songs to sing during the winter months. These are our modern day “carols.”

The way one is brought up takes a huge role in the way she acts and the things she does. Similarly, where one is born geographically can often determine what one will do come certain times of the year. This is true for the Christmas holiday. Worldwide this holiday is a celebration of the birth of Christ, the arrival of Santa Claus, a celebration of the winter solstice, honoring of Saints, and many other things. We know how we celebrate here in the States, but what about other nations? In Sweden, Finland, and Denmark the beginning of the Christmas season begins on December 13th with the celebration of Saint Lucia.

The St. Lucia Day holiday is considered the beginning of the Christmas season and, as such, is sometimes referred to as “little Yule.” Traditionally, the oldest daughter in each family rises early and wakes each of her family members, dressed in a long, white gown with a red sash and wearing a crown made of twigs with nine lighted candles. For the day, she is called “Lussi” or “Lussibruden” (Lucy bride). The family then eats breakfast in a room lighted with candles.

The Germanic people groups of the early centuries brought us the tradition of decorating Christmas trees. The pagan ritual of decorating greenery during the winter solstice was a big part of their culture they did not let go after the spread of Christianity. Christmas trees were introduced to the English after the union of England’s Queen Victoria and Germany’s Prince Albert. Christmas trees first appeared in Pennsylvania in the 1820s upon the arrival of German immigrants. These are just two of the many example of people all around the world who have added to the history of the Christmas holiday we all so dearly enjoy.

It is hard to believe one of the top two most popular Christian holidays, Christmas, is inherently pagan. In the church, Christmas is all about Christ and celebrating His coming. In the world, Christmas is about Santa Claus, buying gifts, gatherings, and good food. The secular view of the Christmas holiday is focused solely on individuals, while Christians try their best to make it all about Jesus. How well are we, Christians, doing at trying to make Christmas about Christ?

With our consumer-based society, fast-paced life, and desire for instantaneous possession of material things, the purpose of Christmas I believe has been lost. The original purpose of the winter celebration was to honor the winter solstice —pagan. But the holiday we celebrate today as the Church is similar in practice but very different in focus — Christ. However, I do believe some of the Church has lost that focus. Christians are raising their children to believe in Santa Claus, causing their whole holiday to be about receiving presents instead of celebrating our Lord and Savior’s birthday. Churches have caught on to the new title of “X-mas” for the holiday. This is new title completely removes Christ from the picture. So, should we celebrate the Christmas holiday as believers even though it is inherently pagan? I believe so. Why? Because we have a new focus for which we celebrate. The problem comes when we as the Church forget this focus and fall in line with what the world is doing on this holiday. Always remember, “Jesus is the reason for the season!”

Sources

http://www.livescience.com/25779-christmas-traditions-history-paganism.html

http://www.history.com/topics/christmas/christmas-traditions-worldwide

http://christianity.about.com/od/christmas/f/christmashistor.htm

https://www.bing.com/search?q=what+is+the+holiday+epiphavy&form= EDGNTC&qs=PF&cvid=cbe10fc66dca410bbf9339081799817a&pq=what+is+the+holiday+epiphavy&PC=ASTS

https://www.bing.com/search?q=definition+of+pagan&form=EDGEAR&qs= PF&cvid=b6cc677fde144e069df0c717544253bf&pq=definition+of+pagan&PC=ASTS

Christmas Traditions: Pagan or Christian?

https://www.bing.com/search?q=origin+of+the+christmas+tree&form= EDGNTC&qs=AS&cvid=f4e758f4decd460281ef90673084299b&pq=origin+of+the+christmas+tree&PC=ASTS

http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/articles/mythology_folklore/mistletoe.asp

http://www.lone-star.net/mall/main-areas/xmas-santa-origin2.htm

http://www.whychristmas.com/customs/carols_history.shtml

Christmas Then and Now

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Katie Kenney

When the normal everyday person thinks about Christmas she normally doesn’t think about the birth of Jesus. Most people are concerned with traditions, food, and gifts. Today, more people are concerned with getting gifts than giving them. Many things have changed, like how many people view Christmas religiously, the importance of buying expensive gifts, and the amount of rest people get. The focus on what is most important has shifted. Spending time with family that haven’t been visited in some time is less important than making sure your house looks like it’s from a Hallmark Christmas movie to some people. How many gifts a person gets and how much the presents cost may be more valuable than the celebration of the birth of Christ to someone you know. We, as a people group, have developed and changed over the course of decades and centuries, so much so a widely celebrated holiday is completely different. By that I mean Christmas used to be a very public celebration, but it is now kept to families and parties with a limited amount of people at them. If that has changed then what else has?

It has come to my attention many children under the age of ten have phones, computers, tablets, and TVs much more expensive and much nicer than anything I had when I was as old as they are. I can’t even imagine what it is like for my parents and grandparents who have literally grown up having no cell phone or laptop to see kids of ten years play inside with video games as their form of entertainment instead of outside like they did. Young people, children and teenagers, seem to have a great want for electronic devices as a whole. Today’s generation has a better knowledge of electronics and how they work. Some people want to improve their knowledge and see what they can create and do with it. Others just want to have devices to entertain them and unintentionally keep them distracted from things outside of the Internet, even though almost everything is online today. This can keep teenagers who are not believers away from God and His word or even give them false information about who He is. Their want of physical things renders them unable to receive God’s promises.

Everyone has seen a little kid have a full out temper tantrum in a public store sometime in their lives. Most of the time, these tantrums happen because the child has been told he can’t have something. Around Christmas, when mothers take their kids with them to places like the grocery store, the amount of outbursts from children increase. This is because small toys and decorations are put out, which gives kids more things to want. They don’t care about making their dad a finger painting and giving it to him on Christmas; they care about getting new toys and playing with them immediately after they open the box it came in. The focus in children’s eyes during Christmas time seems to be about what they want. Many children are asked what they want for Christmas and what they will do with it if they get it. During times of war, kids didn’t get to tell what they wanted and why. They didn’t get to ask for a multitude of toys they wanted because there wasn’t enough resources or time to make the toys.

The Bible says good deeds will not get you into Heaven, but your faith will. This is specifically said in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through grace. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” This means the things you do will not help you get into Heaven, but the faith and trust you put into God will allow you to pass through the gates of Heaven. Unfortunately, this is often forgotten all year ’round, especially during Christmas. Stories about Santa say you have to act well and do good things so you can get presents from him. If you aren’t seen as a good kid then you are punished and coal is put into your stocking instead of candy. This makes kids think from a very young age the only way they can receive good things is by doing good things. Now doing good acts is not at all bad, but thinking the things you do will get you places, like Heaven, is not a good mindset to have.

In a history class, you are obviously taught different things about different time periods. During the time of WWII, people were definitely less greedy than they are now. Children understood, to a certain extent, they couldn’t have everything they wanted because it was to be given to someone else or there wasn’t any more of what they wanted. All of the resources we have today were not available to them because of the state they were in. It was hard to be happy during Christmas because almost everyone knew someone in the war, fighting for their country and their lives. Jews in countries where Communism had control were unable to do the practices and traditions they believed in. They couldn’t even say they were a Jew without having some form of harm inflicted upon them. They had to stuff down their beliefs in order to live sometimes. Across the world, people were unable to buy gifts for everyone they knew because there were less jobs and less money, not even dealing with the fact more weapons were made than toys because of the war.

Going along with the fact religion was hard to express in certain European countries during WWII, religion was hardly spread to other people. Evangelism was minimal because Communist leaders said no religion was allowed and if you said you belonged to one then you could be sent to a concentration camps, possibly many different ones, or even killed on sight. No one in their right mind would tell others about Jesus in the middle of a common place where Communist soldiers walked around. Today, people do that: they hold meetings in public parks, or other places not secretive, and talk about Jesus. People stand out in the winter cold to tell people who happen to walk by them about the joy of Jesus Christ. Evangelism is more prominent than it was before because many people have more freedom to evangelize. They are not as scared to share the gospel. 

Santa is a widely known fictional being who brings people gifts in the middle of the night. Many children believe in him, or believed in him at one point in their childhood, and they found great joy in the idea of him. Jesus is the Son of God who rose from the dead and has cleansed us of our sins. He has given us the opportunity to live forever with Him after we die if we have faith and believe in Him even though we cannot see Him. Unfortunately, some people prefer Santa to Jesus, even people who no longer believe in Santa. A reason people do not believe in Christ is because they do not want to commit to things in the Bible like the Ten Commandments, even though He can bring peace and joy to them. With Santa, there is only one commitment: to be good. This can seem quite appealing, causing people to like the concept of Santa more than they like the concept of Jesus. Most people like to do things the easy way and tend to lean toward the side of less work, which in this case is Santa. However, just because something takes less work does not mean it is better than something that takes a lot of hard work, no matter how hard people try to make that true. Being a Christian takes more work than saying you don’t believe in God, but being a believer is a much better life than going without knowing about God.

On social media, young people seem to care less about the things important to religion or important to the betterment of the world and more about making funny images to share with their friends or getting a certain amount of attention on their pictures they’ve posted. This means some things, like the religion in Christmas for example, can be forgotten. Because of a survey, we know only 39% of young adults ages 18-29 see Christmas as a religious holiday, comparing to 66% of adults aged 65 and older. This shows the value of Christmas has changed over time. The importance of Christmas is looked over or seen as useless by 61% of young adults, which is quite obviously more than half. Those who are older, specifically those who are older than 64, see Christmas is a religious holiday more than adults who are in their twenties. What happened? How did a whole generation just decide Christmas had nothing to do with Jesus Christ? Perhaps they were influenced by those you do not believe online. Maybe they were told if they viewed Christmas as a religious holiday they were stupid or less than those who didn’t view Christmas religiously. It may also be possible they think they will look cooler if they say they don’t believe. Either way, this may mean the percentage of young adults who see Christmas as a religious holiday will drop even lower in the following years.

Around Christmas, it is common for people to be more stressed than they usually are. There is a lot of running around to find the perfect gift, the biggest Christmas tree, or the prettiest home decorations, which can take a toll on someone. If you are struggling to find the one thing your friend asked you for, it might make your stress levels rise. Many stores try to alleviate this stress by being open 24/7, or maybe they’re just doing it for business purposes, but it doesn’t always help. Some stores also allow online shopping so you don’t have to go out in the Christmas shopping rush that looms over people’s heads. However, some people just like to physically go out and shop for what they need or want, even though it might cause them more stress. Many people try to shop early for Christmas presents and ask for Christmas lists a couple months before December. For example, on Black Friday, a multitude of people go out and buy all sorts of things because practically everything is on sale in some way, shape, or form. It is seen by many as a great opportunity to do most, if not all, of their Christmas shopping. It can be quite stressful because there are so many people trying to buy the same things as you when the items are limited. Many people just want to get their shopping over with, but that can just bring more worry and stress. If you try to get everything done before the “rush” then you are rushing yourself, which isn’t the best idea if you are trying to make every little thing about the presents you are giving absolutely perfect.

In 2014, the average American spent $860 on Christmas presents for people they know. This means the amount of money spent for Christmas gifts had increased by 35% in the last thirty years before then. Over time, the prices of the majority of items has increased. If something is expensive then it is most often seen as a better product than an extremely similar product with a smaller price. Because of that, people may buy more expensive things even though they don’t need to or it isn’t in their budget. Speaking of budgets, how come people have bought things that have increased in price over time when the average American income has only increased 6.5% since 1985? That just doesn’t fit well with the increase in the amount of money spent for Christmas gifts. People are buying things that cost a lot of money or that add up to a lot of money, but not everyone has the money to do so and live without having to knock some things down on their priority list. 

On Christmas Eve, it is tradition for some families to drive around their neighborhoods to look at homes decorated with Christmas lights or inflated Santa Clauses. Many families also go to light set-ups like the one in Newport News Park on the weeks before Christmas. It is very common for American families to hang lights on the outside of their house, whether it be on the trim of their roof or the bushes and trees in their yards. Some families are more passionate than others and have an overwhelming want to have the best decorated house on their street. They want to outdo everyone else they know or see. This concept can be seen in the movie Deck the Halls, in which two neighbors compete against each other to see who can have the brightest Christmas lights that may be seen in space. Christmas lights are incredibly important to some people, more important than socializing with people they haven’t seen all year. Over time tangible things like lights and gifts have been focused on more than things like family and the birth of Jesus. You can be ridiculed greatly if you don’t have a Christmas tree somewhere in your house and will be told why you should have one, but if you don’t celebrate Christmas religiously than it is less common for someone to tell you why you should. Decorations seem to be more important than the real reason why Christmas is even celebrated.

In conclusion, Christmas has changed drastically in ways not in plain view for everyone, but if you think about it then it is quite obvious. When you look back and see how different Christmas was it makes you wonder how different Christmas will be in the following decades. The changes that have been made, from main focuses to decorations to beliefs, can be seen as bad, as good, or as the development of our world. Change isn’t inherently bad, but when changes are made to shift the focus away from Jesus and the truth He gives onto things of our human world, it isn’t the best change possible. All of the changes made that don’t fit with what the Bible tells us can be changed again. We have the opportunity to change things back to what God wants, instead of what our human brains want.

Bibliography

Mazza, Juliana. 22WWLP. LIN Television Corporation, 25 Dec. 2014. Web. 26 Sept. 2016. http://wwlp.com/2014/12/25/christmas-has-changed-over-the-decades/.

Pruitt, Sarah. History. A&E Television Networks, 24 Dec. 2013. Web. 24 Sept. 2016. http://www.history.com/news/christmas-traditions-past-and-present.

Jesus, the Perfect Leadership Example

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Tim Seaton

Jesus is our perfect leader we can rely on whenever we need Him. He came to the earth and died for us, then rose again just to save us. That was His mission and reason for being on the earth.  He was God’s son and He wants us to come to Heaven and believe in Him. He wants us to lead a life as close to what He lived as we can, even though nobody other than He ever was or will be perfect. He is the perfect example of a good leader because of what He accomplished and what He did while He was here on earth.

Leadership is when you are in a position to set the example for others or the ability to lead others. Leaders should have a selfless heart that is willing to put their needs after the needs of the people they are leading. Jordan French of BNB Shield said, “Leadership is serving the people that work for you by giving them the tools they need to succeed. Your workers should be looking forward to the customer and not backwards, over their shoulders, at you. It also means genuine praise for what goes well and leading by taking responsibility early and immediately if things go bad.” He is talking about the world’s version of a good leader, and he has some good points.  However, to find the very best example of a leader, we should look to Jesus as our example.  We have the opportunity to be able to influence people in a good way and show them the love and kindness of Jesus Christ He showed us before He was on earth, while He was on earth, and still today.

A good leader always has a mission or purpose in mind and is focused on accomplishing it.  Jesus is a great example of this. He was absolutely focused on His one mission: to save the world and nothing else. He exhibited many excellent leadership qualities during His time on earth.

One characteristic of excellent leadership is being humble. A good leader is never overly confident in his abilities. He encourages others to keep going when there are tough times, and he never boasts when he does better than everyone else. He doesn’t build himself up and tear others down to make him look better or to raise himself to glory. Instead, he lower himself to enable him to help others and show them the grace of God. Jesus demonstrates grace and humility by coming to the earth and dying for us in our place. Leaders, like Jesus, don’t build themselves in false ways. Instead, they do it through actions they perform and words they say.

Another leadership characteristic is being authoritative. When you assert power over others, it doesn’t have to be a dictatorship. It can be a time like Jesus’ where He ruled His followers not by fear, but by respect for Him and His teachings. One time, He turned money tables over that were in the temple because it was wrong to have them in there. Multiple times, He drove the demons out of people with His authority over the heavens and the earth. He demonstrated authority by doing these and many more things that showed his authority over humans and Satan.  Like Jesus, great leaders act with an understanding that they have authority.

Another example of Jesus being a leader is how He showed great self-restraint even when it was incredibly difficult because of His needs and desires. When He went into the wilderness, He was able to resist Satan by telling him scripture and not falling into the temptations any other man probably would have fallen into. While on the earth, He faced countless more tough things, yet He faced them all in perfection. While we might not be perfect like Jesus, our goal should be to try to show this same kind of self-restraint. Jesus was definitely a good leader. He taught others the ways they should live through His example. Demonstrating  the right thing to do is a characteristic of leadership. He showed self-restraint when He was tempted to do the wrong thing, choosing what was right. Showing this restraint is leadership because it is showing one can be trusted to make the right decisions when needed.

A fourth quality is His ability to connect with His followers and build strong relationships. He did this by talking to His disciples away from everybody else, and then talking to everyone else in sermons. He built relationships by interacting with anybody who wanted to hear the gospel and then explaining the gospel to them. Communicating with the people under you is a big part of being an effective leader people respect. Some great examples of connecting and with people is Jesus’ miracles. Some Jesus performed were feeding the 5,000 on the mountain, raising Lazarus from the dead, making the crippled walk again and the blind see. He told the disciples to fish off the other side of the boat where they had been fishing all day, and they caught more than their boats could hold. He healed people by just touching them. He calmed raging storms in the middle of the sea. But maybe the biggest miracle of all was raising Himself from the dead after three days. When He was about to leave the earth, He gave the disciples instructions for when He ascended to heaven, on which they followed through because He was their leader and friend and they respected Him. It shows how much of an impact Jesus really had on people throughout His time on earth, even though He was an enemy of the Romans. When the people saw He actually cared for him, he was immediately looked at and seen as a leader because of His relationship with them. He was able to influence people to follow him and to be more Christ-like by interacting and communicating with His followers.

Another characteristic of being a leader is serving others in whatever ways you can. As a leader, you cannot expect to be able to sit there and have them do all the work for you. Leaders should lead by example, not by telling people what to do. When you serve others, you are letting them know they are important to the cause they are helping. Jesus dedicated His entire life to being a servant to His followers. One passage that ties into being a leader and serving others is Luke 22:24-27: “A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. Jesus said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.’” Jesus lived out this truth. When you are a servant, you have the opportunity to see how a leader really can affect you. If you then rise to a leadership position, then you are able to use what you saw when you were a servant to being a leader.

Another characteristic of strong leaders is the ability to create teams and figure out how people work together. Jesus gathered the disciples as His followers. They left everything behind and became His faithful followers. People listened to Him and believed in Him in part due to His dedicated followers. He understood each disciple had strengths and weaknesses and was able to work with them anyway. As a leader, you need to be able to communicate well with people who are under you as well as those who are above you. If you don’t then your groups could be unbalanced and unhelpful to each other, and therefore, result in  an ineffective team. Jesus was great at this.  He chose good people who were willing to leave behind their lives and follow Him because of His ability to pull them together.  As a leader today, this same skill of being able to put together a good team is still of utmost importance.

Another important characteristic of an outstanding leader is the ability to share what you believe in and inspire others to believe in the same thing. When you can speak with clarity to other people you are leading, then they are going to trust you more and relate to you. He showed and inspired His disciples to follow His message. If you aren’t able to communicate and inspire, then people may not be willing to follow your lead.

A final characteristic of a leader Jesus demonstrated so perfectly is being able to realize a higher authority and recognizing who it is. Jesus prayed daily to God, even though in heaven they are equal. He did this out of respect to God. He also prayed to God on the cross when He was about to die asking God to spare Him, but He knew He had to go through with it if He was going to save humans. As a leader today, we need to be able to realize we have a higher authority in teachers, parents, and especially in God. If we recognize that, then we can finally realize we aren’t the ruler of the world, even when we think our ideas are better than what others have. In honoring a higher authority, we are saying we understand the value of leadership, authority, humility, and demonstrate we are willing to listen to others.

Following Jesus’ leadership skills can apply to us today even though many good leaders were around before we were alive. Jesus was alive 2,000 years ago, yet he still influences people today in a positive way. This supports the fact He was a good leader. If He could do this, then shouldn’t we strive to do the same? Jesus still has great influence in our world and would be considered a leader still, 2,000 years after He walked on the earth. This proves just how effective He was as a leader.

In conclusion, I want to make sure people are aware being a good leader, or a bad one, can affect people’s lives immensely. We have the ability to make purposeful decisions about how we will lead. If you choose to be a good one, then you will be able to know you have possibly helped lives turn for the better. Follow Jesus’ example of a good leader. When we are leading in this way, we are showing God’s love to everyone under us or above us and is learning from us how to be a good leader. We can be leaders anywhere we go at any time if we follow Jesus’ example.

Forgotten Gems: Business as Usual

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Christopher Rush

Man at Play

Of all the albums we’ve explored in the Forgotten Gems series (and its ill-defined offshoot Overlooked Gems), Business as Usual by Men at Work is likely the album I’ve least listened to.  One of them had to be, statistically, so that’s not a big deal, but it is significant enough for me to mention it.  I’ve had it for some time, though I certainly did not listen to it when it immediately came out (like some albums we’ve explored) though mainly because I was one year old at the time.  When the series was first conceived, I knew immediately the entire lineup of albums I wanted to explore, which we did in our initial run before our hiatus.  Now, though, as we have the time to luxuriate in whatever fancy comes our way, I have noticed my listening habits, while not necessarily “expanded,” have broadened enough to focus on the peripheral music of my youth, giving it more due attention now as I am slightly more mature than I was when such music first entered my awareness.  Boy, that was a complicated sentence.  The point of which is to say I have been listening to this album acutely lately, and I have been favorably impressed by it, especially as it is timely for us even thirty-five years on.

Side One

I am using the LP designation here not because I own it but simply for ease of reference.  I own the remastered 2003 compact disc release with bonus tracks.  Such is one convenient feature of coming late to an album such as this: nice bonus tracks (though we will leave the argument of digital sound quality versus vinyl quality sound alone for now).

“Who Can It Be Now?” is one of the two songs you likely remember from this album and the group, even if you don’t immediately recall the band name or album title (or even, like me, the names of the band members).  One of the driving forces of this series has been “the entire album is good, not just the famous tracks,” and while that is certainly true here for this album, let’s not overlook how good the famous songs are just because they are famous — that is also too easy to do; as odd as it sounds, we don’t always appreciate the songs we like (and not just because radio deejays told us to like them).  Certainly this song gives us the distinctive Men at Work sound: Greg Ham’s saxophone.  Such is not to say they were the only band with a significant saxophone component, but Greg Ham’s saxophone riffs on “Who Can It Be Now?” announce this is not just the same-old pop-rock experience, even if the song has become commonplace.  Certainly Colin Hay’s Australian timbre adds to the distinctive nature of the band and the album, and their nationality certainly informs a good deal of the social issues discussed on this album and others (as it always does for every artist).  Lyrically, it seems like a simple “Go away, I’m tired” song buoyed by a catchy musical score, but the tail-end of verse two gives us a glimpse of the deeper lyrical skill of Colin Hay.  There may be some connection to Pink Floyd’s The Wall, here: the “he” knocking all this time may be the narrator himself, not an external force, if the narrator is a hidden psychological facet of the main person.  “I’ve done no harm, I keep to myself; / There’s nothing wrong with my state of mental health. / I like it here with my childhood friend; / Here they come, those feelings again!”  If the “he” knocking is the conscious mind of the narrator trying to rescue the actual singing voice person, perhaps the knocking is a positive thing after all, and the whole song is a deep exploration of identity, health, sanity, and society.  The Pink Floyd connection would be then if the knocker is a friend or someone trying to help the person come out of the shell/supposed security that may be doing more harm than good.  The bridge, though, could disabuse this interpretation, sending it all into a Kafka Trial-like or Dostoyevsky Crime and Punishment-like situation.  Or the person is just bonkers and paranoid.  In any event, there’s more to it than just a catchy pop/new wave song.

“I Can See It in Your Eyes” has a dreamlike quality about it, caught up in a prescient awareness of the impending future, memories of the distant past, and a sharpening awareness of the present.  The electronic sounds undergirding it aid the mystical, introspective aspects, which is rather impressive considering how early on in the electronic music age this came to us.  As the narrator’s understanding strengthens throughout the song, I’m not sure if we are to grow in sorrow for him or appreciation, as his ability to appraise the situation and her needs/desires does not imply deeply felt regret: he may be ready to move on to something more as well, now that he is a more cognizant person himself.  Losing her could be what they both need.  (Personally, I found this song ironically refreshing as I recently threw away a number of old high school photographs days before hearing it again, and I, too, did not feel sad about it — it was very freeing.  I have my memories and other photographs; I don’t need to keep all the stuff of the past.)

“Down Under” is an odd one.  It’s the other famous one you remember, the jaunty groove with a chorus that makes you think it’s a patriotic song about how proud they are to be Australian.  But that’s not really what it’s about.  Australia, like all countries, has a complicated past, and this song tries to remind us about that, not encourages us to wave flags and slam a Foster’s into us as fast as possible in blind devotion and celebration.  The narrator of the song is some travelling drug addict (“head full of zombie”; “Lying in a den in Bombay”) who benefits greatly from the kindness of strangers, many of whom give him food, and despite their generosity and international camaraderie, he still thinks he is superior to others because of his material prosperity and his country’s prosperity — a prosperity, like all 1st World countries’, derived at least in historical part from plunder, conflict, stereotyping, oppression, and the like.  Not to forget the gender distinction of women in a positive light and men doing nothing but plundering and chundering (vomiting).  But still.  It’s a catchy tune, and the song does not want us to think so wholly lowly of Australia as I may have just made it out to sound.  It’s a song that reminds us our patriotism must be tempered by a proper understanding of history, for good or ill.

The quintessential Men at Work/Greg Ham saxophone shines through in “Underground” as well, so much so you may think this “Who Can It Be Now?” if you aren’t paying enough attention immediately, though you’ll recognize it as Men At Work instantly.  This is a very clever song, one of the more overtly political commentary tracks on the album.  The opening lines tell us we have a responsibility not to give in to the Decision Makers and Thought Police (or whomever) who have taken over: keep fighting the good fight.  The eponymous “underground” seems to be where the rich and powerful live now that life on the surface of the planet has become some post-apocalyptic 1984/V for Vendetta dystopia of bureaucratic food lines and gun control.  The end of the song seems like we are on some sort of commando raid among the wealthy elite in the underground, adding to the dynamic atmosphere and energy of the number, always driven by the saxophone line.

I would normally pronounce the title of the next song “helpless aww-TOM-a-tahn,” but that’s not how the song says it: “helpless auto-MAY-ton.”  We can forgive this pronunciation, as it occurs, I think, solely to fit the metrical pattern of the lyrical line, and since Homer did that all the time and Shakespeare and Milton did that all the time, surely Men at Work can do it here.  I’m no expert on New Wave music, but I suspect this song may be the most New Wavy of the album; at least it’s the most sci-fi contemporary of the album, coming out around the same time as John Sladeck’s Roderick and a little after Asimov’s Bicentennial Man (though several other robot-themed movies and novels had been out for some time, certainly).  It does have that mechanical sound to it, indeed, driven by the synthesized sounds of the keyboard.  I don’t have proof the band read any of those, but it is odd how this song came out at a time when robotics was seeing not just a resurgence but the beginnings of palpability (Data on Next Generation is only about five years away).  This song sounds a little different as well being sung not by Colin Hay but by saxophone/flute/keyboard man Greg Ham.  In our present age of all-powerful and frightening cyborgs and Terminators and Information Superhighway-powered Drones and Probes, a song about a “helpless” automaton seems even more bizarre.  Sure, some of the rhymes may seem a little forced, but don’t they usually, though?

Side Two

Side two opens with a song seemingly innocuous, especially in the relative shallowness of its verses, but the song has become frighteningly more relevant today than when it first came out: “People Just Love to Play with Words.”  We live in an age in which it seems each year They decide to redefine some term or concept or idea: marriage, love, justice, family, words ending in –phobic, respect — all sorts of words, for good or ill, have been redefined lately, and while it has not been “playing,” and has very serious ramifications for all of us who have a more accurate grasp on reality, it has a similar sort of capriciousness to it (albeit a more anti-traditional vindictive capriciousness, if such a thing is possible).  I certainly don’t want to delve too much into contemporary political commentary (longtime readers surely know by now I have very little involvement in the “now” anyway), but it has been a very bizarre thing to witness, a phenomenon more manifest by this song, even if the song did not intend to prophecy the deconstructive 21st century.

“Be Good Johnny” may seem naïvely simple, but it is another clever song from Men at Work making this album far richer than most think it is (which, of course, is the point of this article).  This is a prequel to “Johnny B. Goode,” in which young Johnny is being confronted by all sorts of authority figures who assume living life their way is the way to go.  Now, we have just lamented somewhat the current trend of rejecting tradition (a trend that has been around for so long it has effectively become a tradition itself, ironically), but the traditions of this song are not really good ones: they’re just the safe, convenient anti-individual sort of thing Society wants you to do (as good-intentioned as the grownups may be) — don’t rock the boat, do the things we all love doing (football, cricket), learn a trade not important beautiful life things — those sorts of “traditions.”  Instead of all that palaver, young Johnny just wants to dream and yet he still manages to be a good boy and honor his parents, even if he isn’t on some sort of fast track to a lucrative career.  The catchiest part of the song is the repetitive but fun chorus, even though the chorus consists solely of tendentious authoritative advice, none of which Johnny needs.  Combined with the dialogue and various musical sections, this is a very good song.

The middle of the second side is another overtly socio-political commentary track, “Touching the Untouchables,” and I admit I suspect my interpretation of this song could be way off.  Surely our initial thoughts when hearing or reading the title of the song is “it’s about India,” but I don’t think it’s directly about India.  Since Men at Work are from Australia not England, I’m not sure there’s an immediate visceral/historical connection there — though, it could have some connections to the caste system, indeed; Colin Hay is a very intelligent songwriter.  It seems to me this song is about the financially struggling, the homeless, the downtrodden of society, the ones we sort of think we want to help, but as the song says “in the end you know / You turn away.”  It’s an important message, yet even in its criticism it does not descend into excoriation.  “What can I say?” is the response to “You turn away,” not “What a filthy unchristian hypocrite you are, rich guy!”  Musically, it’s very much a product of its time, with a Police-like reggae/New Wave rhythm, but it’s very distinct from the Police, especially in the saxophone triplet-like interjections during the chorus — they are very hard to describe and initially seem out of place, but the more one listens to the song the more these bizarre sounds fit completely with the complete musical/lyrical experience.

One gets the sense by this point the album is slowing down.  “People Just Love to Play with Words” is jaunty, “Be Good Johnny” is only slightly slower if at all, “Touching the Untouchables” uses a much different reggae-like 6/8-feel, all leading into “Catch a Star,” another reggae/not-reggae song with a grove totally distinct from the rest of the album (I almost said “fresh,” there, sorry).  It’s the most “traditional love song” on the album, and since it sounds nothing like a traditional love song nor musically what the title may imply rhythmically or tempo-wise, that’s saying something about Men at Work’s creativity (even if only for such a vibrant yet brief period).  In a world of isolation and complication and destruction, it’s nice to have someone you love with you along life’s journey.  I’m not sure if the “star” is the sweet boo the narrator has by him through this thing called life, but that interpretation works for me — maybe it’s something like having successfully wished for love on a falling star, he caught the star and got his wish fulfilled.  I don’t know.  But it’s a nice number and not worthy of being denigrated as an album filler.

Finally, “Down by the Sea” shows how patient the band can be.  “Underground”’s longer-than-expected introduction previewed this for us as well.  It may seem disproportionate to call Men at Work a “patient” band here, since most of the album offerings are about 3:30 long with “Down by the Sea” the only truly long number (almost seven minutes), and as a band they only released three albums in just over five years of corporate existence (with most of this crew not even on the third album), but since numerical statistics are poor support for authentic temperament, I eschew those in favor of focusing solely on this song as proof the band could sustain a musical and lyrical experience if they wanted to.  It’s somewhat hard to tell how many verses this song has (four, maybe five), considering the interludes or pre-choruses or choruses or whatever the kids are calling them are so different from each other.  Musically, the band blends exceptionally well on this final dream-like number.  Jerry Speiser’s drums are exceptionally complementary here (their sound throughout the album has a distinct ’80s quality about them, especially in the timbre and duration of the cymbal crashes).  Greg Ham’s wind instruments are almost lyrical themselves; John Rees’s bass and Ron Strykert’s guitar likewise support the entire tonal experience.  It’s quite tempting to call this my favorite song on the album, in part because it is so unlike the rest of the album, and yet these ten distinct songs all sound wholly and quintessentially Men at Work songs.  That the song is about languorously living on the beach with no cares is icing on the cake, as the kids say.  And you know how much I love the ocean.

Man at Rest

There’s nothing “usual” about this album: the songs are all distinct yet united, the sounds are noticeably familiar yet refreshingly unexpected.  The lifestyles and experiences sung of are both cautionary and introspective.  Put aside the labels; ignore the overly-familiar “greatest hits” aspects that lend to too-easily-trite pseudo-appreciation.  This is a top notch album from a time when experimentation and synthesization threatened to replace “great” with “different” for different’s sake.  Get this album and enjoy it again and again.  Perhaps it will take you back to a simpler time, clarify your thinking about life and love and government and society and individuality, or better yet encourage you to go live by the sea and cast away your worries and your cares.  What more could you want from an album?

2022 P.S. – I now do own the album on vinyl, if that makes you feel better. If it doesn’t, it’s still true.

On Virtue, Good Governance, Civics, and the Classics

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Chris Christian

After much thought on this topic, namely the express deliberative and instilled idea that virtue, as a concept, or better, a truth, is real and was believed by our nation’s august framers and founders as the basis for the provision of good governance, and subsequently good civics, we must make certain specific ideas are understood, as far as the founders understood them, concerning the following: western civilization’s acceptance of virtue, the truth about human nature, and the dissemination of what is virtuous through a classics-oriented education as well as a pursuit of virtuous-minded civic participation in our Republic.

On what the founders believed about virtue and whether we have it.

The framers’ and founders’ ideas about what virtue was had been framed in the experiences already endured by their forebears, whether they had been Puritans and Separatists in New England, Anglican gentleman planters in Virginia, gentleman adventurers in Maryland, or Quaker fundamentalists in Pennsylvania. They all came forward through the unifying experience of the Great Awakening, where each background had sought Biblical truths beyond dogmatic theology involving the assurance of salvation and their unique identity as something distinct from their European counterparts currently experimenting with the Enlightenment. In Europe, the idea people were inherently good, or at least neutral perceivers and deciders of judgments on the basis of stimulus, was emerging and taking some hold, whereas in America, virtue was understood as something unique in God’s nature, and we were fashioned to pursue it … or reject it.1

Of course, one might be tempted to accuse diverse members of our framer/founder friends on the basis of what each member’s conclusions concerning the assurance of salvation was. Does this criticism merely come from a criticism we ourselves ought bear? Decidedly. The framers and founders, as very young men, had experienced, in one way or another, the central purpose and spirit of the Great Awakening as a unifying historical experience after all, an experience in which a form of liberty was sought in order to undertake a special spiritual journey of pursuing assurance of salvation through a personal experience-oriented relationship with God.2 Certain ideas about what ought be believed about God, Mankind, and a relationship between the two were also reinforced within this experience, and whether they knew it or not, our founder friends accepted them to the degree they formulated the framework of our Republic upon these same ideas.3

On what the founders understood about human nature.

The framers rejected the Enlightenment ideas about man being neutral or fundamentally “good” as in “just” and upon this basis fashioned a governance in keeping with the ideas and notions of John Locke: that governance ought have a role; that the role was clear, succinct, and specific; and that this role was limited to protecting the governed from one another and from the governance. Locke stipulated the derivation of property arose through the State of Nature, and the recognition of man’s flawed nature made the rise of the governance an “evil” necessity, born forth in the State of Man, where governance exists to protect “life, liberty, and the pursuit of property.”4 Jefferson would reiterate this last portion of the role of governance to the “pursuit of happiness.” Ultimately, the framers understood that people were flawed, that truth was true always, and that there was no relativity with absolute understandings. Rather they endure, and so there will always be right and wrong, and subsequently there will always be right and wrong actions whether they be on the part of the governed or the government.5

Further evidence of the founders’ acceptance, and to some degree the American colonists’ acceptance, of this elemental condition of human nature is born out in the popular sermons of the Great Awakening, made much of while the framers and founders were mere boys. The message of mankind’s frail imperfection and sinful nature is made manifest quite clearly in Edwards’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,”6 and the further acceptance of mankind’s need and ability to pursue virtue is seen perhaps most clearly in the popular reception of Whitefield’s “Marks of a True Conversion,”7 wherein Whitefield testifies to how man can repent and establish a relationship with God and what the signs of such a relationship ought to be.

On what the founders meant by classics.

The framers and founders understood classics as being traditional classical learning and works, which reinforced the ideas concerning a flawed man created by an infallible and perfect Creator. The classics were thought to motivate learners to pursue excellence because they reflected the best of flawed man created by a perfect Creator.8 The stories and myths of the ancients, for example, gave examples of the best of man, the beauty of pursing good, and triumph over evil. The founders included the Bible as a key part of this as well. The Bible shows the best of God and the best of obedience to God, as it were.

On how the founders understood training and education.

At first, education was focused on providing as much apologetics training for good little Puritans, Anglicans, Baptists, Catholics, Separatists, Quakers, etc., as one could, and in many parts of America, the Bible was used as the sole textbook along with a hornbook and primer.9 After the Great Awakening, a new focus emerged, where Enlightenment thinking was turned on its head, and the classics were pursued to fashion the best young Christian with an assurance of salvation as one could using the classics AND the Bible AND Logic and Rhetoric, AND  church, AND civic participation in governance.10

In Summation

It should be consequently observed therefore, that virtue was indeed a vital component behind the framers’ and founders’ vision for America. Our forebears, going back even to their first arrival on these shores, had a thorough grounding on what they accepted as true virtue, and on the truth concerning the spiritual and physical state of mankind from Adam. Knowing as they did true human nature, they established our State in such a manner that the good of the governed under our republican governance is best guaranteed through the pursuit of virtue once it has been learned of in a classical manner.

Endnotes

1 Guelzo, Allen C. “The American Mind” Lecture Series, Gettysburg College. The Great Courses: Philosophy and Intellectual History. The Teaching Company, 2005. Pt 1. Lectures 1-3.

2 Guelzo, Lecture 4.

3 Arn. Larry P. “Introduction to the Constitution Lecture Series.” Hillsdale College, 2011-14. Part 1.

4 Guelzo, Lectures 1 and 3.

5 Arn, Part 1.

6 Edwards, Jonathan. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/sermons.

7 Whitefield, George. “Marks of a True Conversion.” Selected Sermons of George Whitefield. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/whitefield/sermons.

8 Guelzo, Lectures 2-5.

9 Johnson, Paul. A History of the American People. London, New York: Harper Collins, 2009. p. 49-71.

10 Guelzo, Lecture 4.

Names of God

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Destiny Phillips Coats

As a young believer I have been exposed to many names of God. I find myself learning new ones all the time. Very rarely, however, have I personally taken the time to study and understand the different names of God, their meaning, relevance, and know where they are in the Scriptures. In my relationship with the Lord, I am always in need of Him in different ways. God of course foresaw this need and named Himself in Scripture tons of different ways so I could see Him aiding me in all aspects of my life. I know I am not the only person who needs God to take on different roles dependent upon situations in this life. God is Comforter, Provider, Protector, Peace, Deliverer, Shepherd, Foundation, and Counselor. This paper will uncover the meaning, relevance, and references for these eight names of God applicable to all at any stage of life.

We as believers can find ourselves often calling out to God, “Lord I need you.” God in his omniscience put in Scripture His many names so we can see God fulfilling all roles we desire Him to fill in this life. Names of God also describe God’s persons as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One of these many names is Comforter. The name Comforter is in direct reference to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was sent to indwell within believers after the ascension of Jesus once His mission was complete. “But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26). In this Scripture, Jesus is speaking to His disciples concerning the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, who will be sent from the Father to aid them in remembering Christ’s teachings. Earlier in this chapter, Jesus is expressing to the disciples He will leave to prepare a place for them in Heaven. The disciples are disheartened by this and ask Jesus how they will know the way to Heaven without Him. He responds to them with John 14:26. Jesus is explaining to them they will not be left alone and to their own sinful nature because God the Father will send them the great Comforter to guide them and indwell among them in this life. This aspect of God is encouraging in those times when we feel like we have been left to our own devices. Thanks to the Holy Spirit within each of us, we are reminded by His presence and Scriptures like these that we are not alone. We are being comforted by the almighty God within us, the Holy Spirit, our Comforter.

“Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” (Matthew 6:26). God the Father is a Provider. Every Christian can pinpoint a time in their life when they worried because they thought they would lack in something. Whether it be money, food, clothes, or knowledge there will be tons of times in our lives when we will think, “I do not have the tools to do this.” Coming to the realization sometimes we cannot always provide everything we need leaves us feeling anxious and worried about what will happen because of our lack. Thanks to the Scriptures, we can read Matthew 6:26 and many other passages and be reminded the same God who created everything with a purpose and feeds the birds every day, will also take care and provide for us. A bird is not a joint heir with Christ, yet the Father provides for it. This is an encouraging reminder no matter how big or small our needs are, the Father will always be our Provider.

When a person accepts Christ into their heart and becomes a Christian, she becomes in that moment a child of God and a coheir with Christ.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Galatians 4:4-7

In an ideal family construct one of the father’s duties is to protect his children. This obligation on our natural father is adopted from our heavenly Father. Another role God the Father takes on is that of a Protector. In Ephesians 6:10-20 one can find listed the whole armor of God. This armor’s purpose, laid out in the chapter, is 1) to “be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11b) and 2) to “be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm” (Ephesians 6:13b). God knows being a Christian in this world is not easy. He knows what it takes to defeat the enemy. He foresaw the difficulties we would face and the battles we would fight. God did not leave us to our own defenses; instead, as a Father who loves His children, He equipped us with tools to protect ourselves. God gave us a belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet, and sword. He is our Father, our Protector.

In Judges 6:17 we find Gideon asking the Lord for a sign He indeed is speaking with God. Once it is confirmed to him he is speaking with the Lord, Gideon proclaims God to be “Jehovah Shalom,” which translates to “God is Peace.”

Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.

Judges 6:22-24

In the verses prior to those quoted above, Gideon is full of fear. The Lord in fact appears to Gideon while he is hiding from the Midianites. The Lord approaches Gideon calling him a “man of valor” (Judges 6:12). The Israelites during this time were being oppressed by the Midianites. A lot of God’s people were living in fear. When people are afraid, they often worry and are anxious. When we worry, it is hard to find rest. After the Lord appeared to Gideon, he built an altar and named it “Jehovah Shalom.” He proclaimed the Peace of God over an altar because he experienced peace in God’s presence during a time of trouble. God speaks all throughout Scripture of the peace we can find in Him. This is an example of God the Father being our Peace, but what about the Son? “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Here Jesus is calling those who are worried, burdened, and anxious telling them they can find rest or peace in Him. God’s role as our Peace is found in both the Son and the Father.

Throughout the entirety of the Old Testament, readers see how God repeatedly delivered the Israelites from the hands of their oppressors. God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt. God gave the Israelites Judges to lead them in battle and delivered them from the hands of many other people groups. God sent His son, Jesus, to deliver all of mankind out of bondage from sin. In Psalm 18, David is proclaiming the glory of God by expressing Him as his deliverer. “I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies” (Psalm 18:1-3). The Israelites saw God as their deliverer time and time again, yet they fell away from Him. They grumbled and complained when they felt He had forsaken them when in reality, they had forsaken Him. Despite their unfaithfulness, God in His mercy delivered them out of the hands of their enemies. God is the same God yesterday, today, and forever. He is and forever will be our Deliverer.

“Shepherd,” as defined by Dictionary.com, is “a person who herds, tends, and guards sheep; a person who protects, guides, or watches over a person or group of people.” Scripture proclaims God the Father and Son to be shepherds to believers. Psalm 95:7 proclaims God the Father to be our Shepherd who guides us. “For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” The study of God as a shepherd is not uncommon amongst believers. I personally have attended many Sunday school lessons learning about what a shepherd is and how God is the Great Shepherd. The love of God for all is expressed in the parable of the Lost Sheep taught by Jesus.

See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. … What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Matthew 18:10, 12-14

This parable tells us God cares for all His sheep/believers. There are millions of Christians all around the world. God’s love for all is equal. He notices when one of us is left behind or falls astray. God does not only think of the majority when guiding us through life. God considers each and every one of His children at all times. God sees us get lost. God sees us fall back. God notices us each individually and He is searching for us, calling us back to Him. He loves us enough to go out of His way to bring us back to Him and under His protection. He is our Shepherd.

“Jesus, you’re my firm foundation. I know I can secure. Jesus, you’re my firm foundation. I put my hope in your Holy Word.” Many of us recognize these lyrics to “Firm Foundation” written by Don Moen. This song is rejoicing in Jesus’ role as our Foundation. Jesus tells a parable about a man who builds his home on sand and another who builds on a rock.

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

Matthew 7:24-27

Jesus is telling us here those who build their lives upon His teachings will be wise, but those who do not are foolish. Jesus’ words are recorded in Scripture. Scripture is special revelation given to man from God. These teachings are to be the foundation of which we are to build our lives. Jesus is the center of our faith. Satan throws arrows at us. Trials and tribulation will come upon each and every one of us. No matter what comes our way, if our lives are built upon the teachings found in Scripture, we will not fall or be shaken. Jesus is our firm Foundation.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). Here, Isaiah is prophesying about Christ. Isaiah calls Jesus a Wonderful Counselor, the last name of God to be discussed in this paper. During this period, the Israelites were being taken into captivity by the Assyrians. Isaiah was speaking of the character of the coming Messiah who would free God’s people from the chains of sin. The word “wonderful” here is to describe Jesus as awe encompassing. The meaning of the word has definitely been watered down since this time but the conclusion can still be drawn the Christ is indeed wonderful. The Messiah was going to be the everlasting King of Israel. A king is to be a counselor. In this time the king was the highest form of leadership. A “counselor,” defined by Dictionary.com, is “an advisor.” A counselor’s job is to give advice or impart wisdom among those who need it. Isaiah is proclaiming Christ to be an awe encompassing king who will provide great wisdom. Scripture is our guide to life on Earth. Within Scripture is wise counsel from the Lord through His role as the Father and Son. Scripture is our form of God’s “wonderful” counsel we are to reference for every situation life presents us with. If we seek God’s counsel in this life, we will be amazed at the richness of God’s wisdom that will be displayed in our lives. Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor.

Just like there is Scripture we can go to for every situation in life, there are also names of God that show us the ways He can fulfill all our needs. God the Father loved us so much He desires for all of us to be with Him at all times. If one believer goes astray, He will do all that is necessary to bring us back to Him. By shepherding us, God protects us from harm, delivers us from the pain of sin, and provides all of our needs. God gave us Scripture with His teachings upon which we are to build our lives. If we are founded in His teachings, we will uncover the wise counsel of the Lord that will give us peace when Satan tries to combat us with life’s trials. But no matter what we face, God sent the Holy Spirit to be with us, to comfort us every day until we join Him in all of His glory.

Two on Song of Myself: Discerning the Meaning of Meaningless Poems and Unentwining the Deadness from Being Alive

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Alice Minium

Whitman probably would not have considered himself a teacher, let alone the guru of words and wisdom that the modern world has made him out to be.

In his own time, Whitman was, by all accounts, the simplest of men. He was not stuffy or pretentious, as we are when we sit in our classrooms debating the intellectual finer points of whether or not Whitman might have been gay.

He probably would have laughed had he known entire classrooms of students would spend hours dissecting the meaning of his punctuation and his reasons for ending a line. “Who was the 29th bather?!” we ask wretchedly, clawing at our eyes and throwing our hands to the sky in exasperation.

The funny thing is that Whitman probably didn’t even know.

Poetry is transmutation, an incarnation of abstraction into the tangible plane of mind and linear ideas, and poetry by its nature does not bend to our linear laws, nor is it defined by them. The laws serve poetry in conveying its purpose, and the way they fall and are constructed so delicately infers to us, like fingerprints, traces of the soul of the poem, but they are not in essence the poem itself- only fragments. A poem is not its words, symbols, punctuation breaks, or any other syntactical components. A poem is an energy above, within, and without all of that.

The poem is what you hear between the lines, that which can only be implied in words — that which speaks directly to the soul, like sacred wind chimes, an ancient siren cry of summoning to our inner self that knows more than world, “Wake up.” That is the part of us that receives poetry, if we are receiving it properly.

 Much like music, which is not simply heard, it is utterly felt and inspires raw physiological and spiritual reactions within us, and draws out emotion endlessly like water from a well. Have you ever heard a song from your childhood, and tried not to feel anything as you listen? It is impossible.

Though we live mostly in mind (thanks to modern life) and to a small extent within the body, most of who and what we are is completely and utterly Soul.

Soul masters all of that, and mind can say, “Feel nothing,” but the Soul will not obey, as it cannot be extracted from its other manifestations. Soul is inherent in all things, the thread which flows within and between all entities, and we cannot escape it, for we are Soul. All of the universe is Soul.

It is to our Souls that Whitman speaks most directly and profoundly. It is our Souls upon which he impresses an indentation of exotic and primal laughter, and it is our Souls to whom Whitman sings. He flirts with our souls, mesmerizes our souls, challenges our souls, calls our souls into our bodies with his words like fast magnets zapping consciousness into our molecules and presence into our nucleotides and irrefutable magic into our moments. It is the Soul within us we find so entranced by the words of Whitman.

Whitman would not have called himself a teacher, for he laughed at the Men of Mind peddling words and playing Jenga with interlocking thoughts and dreams and transmutations endlessly, day after day, forever entranced with analysis and forgetting to live. Whitman would have said that it is better to play in the grass than to read a hundred books, or better to sing a song of joy than to study for hours and master the algorithms of matter and math.

He had this very Christ-like notion of drinking from the raw tap of human experience, a very Taoist ideal of this very moment and all that it contains being the infinite sum total of all things.

Such a mentality is the “Stop” at the end of the telegram; such fullness needs no motion. Yet through motion, and the interplay of opposites, smoke curls, flowers bloom … and the universe comes to know itself.

Every expression, every action, every entity, every tangible and intangible thing are simply the universe laughing, playing with herself, stretching her arms out, writing a poem in a thousand different languages and via a thousand different mediums.

Such is the myriad dimension and delirium of the canvas of life. Its nature cannot be known in mute, fixed laws. It is not mechanistic, dead, or inert. It cannot be known by grammatical structure or the arrangement of words within poetry.

It cannot be dissected by taking apart all the components of a radio, hoping to find music, or disentangling from the thoracic cavity all the organs of the body, hoping to find life. You will find only machines and matter there.

Life cannot be mapped, cannot be defined, cannot be extracted, cannot be indirectly known. You must know it yourself. You must meet it for yourself. You must hear it yourself, drink from its well yourself, and play with it yourself. Life cannot be taught, you must touch it yourself.

It is not earned, or learned, or acquired, and Whitman would have laughed at any who claimed him as teacher of elite sacred spiritual arts. Whitman’s spiritual truth was knowable to every human, and to every nonhuman despite their category, already.

Whitman’s spiritual truth was Being Alive. Whitman was, above all, truly the teacher of that. We can eviscerate and analyze his poetry for years yearning to tap the meaning from its component parts, but that is not where his teaching lies, and that is not how we will know it.

“Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?/ Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems” (section 2: line 18-19).

We have felt so proud of our meanings, but the joke is that there’s nothing to discover or extract from them that we don’t already have — there is nothing we can ever find whose origin is not the same as our very own.

“Stop with me, and you shall possess the origin of all poems.” Stop with me, and feel for yourself. Breathe for yourself. Touch for yourself. Drink for yourself. Taste it yourself.

Do you feel that? That is meaning. Do you hear that? That is the poem. And of that, above all, we can be our only teacher.

Two on Song of Myself: Stop Working and Look at a Flower

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Alice Minium

I. Machines.

I do not envy the modern lifestyle. Working a repetitive, soul-sucking job where humans are required to behave like machines makes me feel dead inside. As Whitman alludes to many times, there is no insignificant job, and in any job I can use my imagination and share goodwill with all the world.

However, modern society will absolutely make you feel like a machine, if you let it. If you inside your little box-house long enough, staring at your picture-box, and eating things out of boxes, and arranging all your ideas into boxes inside boxes into boxes. You will forget that things without boxes can exist. Humans were not made to live life out of boxes, and boxes are not our natural state. It chokes you, for a reason. You feel constrained, for a reason. You feel tired, for a reason. You forget that you can unplug the box any time.

At least, I forget.

I forget, sometimes, that I am not a machine. Everything I do and say is so task-like, preprogrammed, and empty. I have to entirely unplug myself from social convention to, as Whitman says in Section 5, line 3, “loose the stop from [my] throat.” How dangerous is such an act. How deviant it is to wildly abandon the groupthink, without hesitation or apology. Every day I find myself straddling the juxtaposition of these two opposing principles, awkwardly balancing a medium between the two, so I can be free and yet stereotypically functional within the world. Deep within, or really not so deep at all, I yearn to be wildly free. Yet one cannot be wildly free and still be nondescript about it. How dangerous it is to unplug oneself entirely. How fundamentally disruptive to modern society.

Whitman’s teachings are fundamentally disruptive to modern society.

The modern way does not “ask the sky to come down to my good will,/Scattering it freely forever” (14:18-19) nor “tenderly…use…curling grass” (10:12). To embrace the sky is absurd. Society regards the sky as an inert ceiling, not a door. The curling grass exists for lawns and is meant to be mowed, of course.

Not according to Whitman. In a highly controversial move, Whitman tells us in Section 5, line 3, “Loafe with me on the grass.” To loafe means to just kind of hang out without any objective at all. When was the last time someone told you to just go hang out aimlessly? We are more familiar with the scolding, “Work harder,” than with someone telling us to do the complete opposite of work. Work less, says Whitman.

The feeling of Song of Myself is songlike, and slow. It is rhythmic and unhurried, like a long summer’s day spent loafing in the grass, celebrating your own existence for exactly no reason at all.

In the modern world, we are discouraged from doing anything for no reason at all. Everything must be productive in some way. Everything must be busy, and fast. All of my life is fast. Even my mind is fast. Even when the noise and stimuli stop, still my mind is chattering away like a sick seizing ape bouncing neurons around, deluded with the importance of objects, drunk on the toxicity of Normal and Daytime. Better to be an animal, as Whitman frames so beautifully in Section 32, lines 3-6:

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,

They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,

They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,

Not one is dissatisfied with the mania of owning things.

We are erratic, thirsty, yet perpetually dehydrated beasts gone absolutely mad with the mania of owning things. Whitman makes an astounding proposition in Section 2, when he beautifully satirizes the fallibility of his own medium, poetry, which is revered and consumed by so many, who fuss over its mysteries, hoping to extract from it “the origin of all poems.” In line 20, he invites us, “Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems.”

In other words, how do you get where you are going? Stop.

II. Stop.

Can you imagine the implications if we were all to suddenly, stop? If we put down our books, abandoned our work, and decided to wildly, recklessly play? How ever could society function if we all just looked at flowers? How on earth could we ever produce a commodifiable good?!

Perhaps, instead, a better question, is why is the production of commodifiable goods the ultimate goal of society? Is that really the best we can do? Is productivity and efficiency and material output really the prime potential of the oh-so-great and sentient homo sapiens?

Do we not call ourselves “enlightened?” Do we not call the era of rapid philosophical development the Enlightenment, out of which, we are taught, sprang the modern material era in which we now live? And if that is so, and modern man is, unlike his planetary cohabitants, enlightened in his world of materialism, then I ask you, where is that light?

I do not see it.

I see a world that is hungry and sick in its soul. I see a world of consumers and producers. I see a world of souls hammered into commodifiable goods and dissected to extract their most profitable components.

I see minds like televisions that have been on mute for years, and don’t even remember they are capable of song, so they purchase a laugh track for $9.99 to distract them from the SILENCE that is ABSENCE that we have not heard in so long that we are terrified. We hear the sound of our own breath, and ask in horror WHAT IS THAT MONSTER. We hear the music of the mind and it is alien. It is raw and real, alien and un-plastic, the same electric ahhh that hums through all of nature, innervating every membrane of dimension into sensation and form, and we cringe at it, because we do not know it.

We cringe at it because, like an animal kept in a cage its whole life, we neither understand nor desire to know the world beyond the cage. We are penitent, pitiful pets of some sadistic extradimensional creatures who feed on fear and hatred and by god we keep them well-fed. How disgusted we are by anything that lives outside the cage. How fearful we are of those beasts. How wild they are. How uncontained. How unenlightened. How vibrantly and violently the electricity of Being Alive pulses through them like electric shock even to the blazing profusion of a growl or a shriek? How uncivilized their UTTER ALIVENESS.

Look into the eyes of your cashier clerk or picture of success and tell me we are not dead.

Do you regularly, as in Section 1, line 1, “celebrate [your]self”? How often do you do that every day? Do you, as in Section 1, line 4, “loafe and invite [your] soul”? Have you invited your soul to be in attendance today? Would you even know its address?

Look into your own soul, and tell me, do you even recognize it? Or is it a formidable foreign land to you, once whose labyrinths you have yet never to wander? Have you met yourself? If you did, would you like her? Have you yet to meet a flower? Have you met the acid sky, the spray-paint grass, even the soft warm woodness of your desk? Have you met it for what it is, stopped to feel it and only it and do no other thing, felt and breathed its every scent and color with the unjudging eager attention of a lover (Section 3: 20-21, 24:48)? Have you even met your own body so? Or do we know these things only to be Things, as extensions to be utilized for production, as inert meat and matter, COMMODIFIABLE GOOD? Where does commodifiable good end and Realness begin? Is it the physical objects in closest proximity for which we most greedily perspire? Is it with our bodies? Is it with our minds? Are any of these things even ours anymore?

In Section 30: 1-3, Walter reminds us:

All truths wait in all things,

They neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it,

They do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon.

These questions Alice raises, and these precepts Walt proposes, are absurd and dangerous. Of course modern life is fulfilling. To hypothesize that it is not will create an error in the algorithm.

III. Play.

Let us dissect this hypothesis with the obstetric forceps of a surgeon and extract the cancer of fragmented meaning that so errantly has grown here. The cancer of inspiration can prove fatal to the organism, and is almost universally malignant to the capitalist-industrialist paradigm when left unchecked. Passion unbridled and a wild MOAN, an errant SHRIEK, an existential YAWN, a SITTING ON THE TABLE AT THE AIRPORT have been known to rapidly metastasize into the infectious WILD of a Being-Poem; and men will awaken to their own breath and love the taste, and they will laugh, and women will realize they are men, and men will realize they are cats, and children will giggle at the poem of this in the airport, and everyone will run around; and no one with a PriceTagNameTagVeryImportant will tell us to “stop,” and if they do, we will not hear them; or if we do, we won’t know how; because we have unstopped, and now unlive our lives in a single molecule of stretched-out simultaneous moment.

All of essence is available to us Forever And Ever Always Now in every flower and each breath (“All truths wait in all things,” says Section 30: Line 1), we need not wait. We need not painstakingly throttle life by the throat, choking it, dying to extract a droplet of Essence to haphazardly drip from its sponge-like skeleton for … we are so thirsty and the world is dead, and sick, and we meet ourselves at night in the blank white walls, and we meet the kiss of God in the sinews of our sweat within the grinding mechanical motion between Must and Pain; we feel Her So-Invasive Intimate Kiss, and it feels profane, it is so Everything, and I have stared at this screen for so long. My eyes burn, I stare and see nothing. My wild dendrites of yearning and yes are numb, and clipped, and freshly manicured for academic-industrial-workplace Exhaustion; drink this cup until you fulfill you unless you’ll drink it or die (or maybe you won’t, but Nobody’s lived to tell the tale). Is this not nonsense?

When the modus operandi of logical truth is actually nonsense, is absurdity not the only way to defy it? Is it not revolutionary to be absurd? Are Whitman’s truths not absurd by the standards of society?

“I exist as I am, that is enough/ If no other in the world be aware I sit content,” he declares in Section 20: line 25. Wait, what? What about all the things you need? What about all the things you have to do, all the modifications you need to make to your body, all the goals you need to accomplish, all the toys you need to buy? What about all the friends you need to impress, all the legitimacy you need to obtain through the recognition of other people? To say “I am enough,” is a counterculture act.

Please, the world will say, package up your aimless abstractions and deposit them in the Recycling for they are simply cluttering up productive space which could be occupied by an advert. You’re not good enough, be hungry, and purchase some accessories on your way out the door. Nobody has time for your abstractions, Alice. They are absurd, and you will be expelled from the belly of the capitalist organism like an acidic virus we must vomit up. You will destroy it from within.

Would such expulsion really be horrific? Is freedom from containment, in fact, the worst we fear? If that is why we are not wild, then, by all means, please expel me! If that is all we fear, why don’t we do the ridiculous things we always want, and sit on tables supposed to be chairs? Stop showing up? Check out completely? Look at a flower? Drop our tools? Forget our plans? Put down our phones and drink the sky? Would that really be so bad?

We live inside of paper plastic prop-up houses fabrications of fabrications of fabrications of fabrications of something that resembled a Real Thing once. Now it is “more convenient,” and dead, and made of Styrofoam. Mankind is dead, and our minds are made of Styrofoam. We don’t dislike it, because we don’t remember how. We are Styrofoam bubble-wrap brains that pop Reaction at pre-programmed synapse site. We simulate original emotion, but oh, it has been ages since we have felt a real thing. We numb the impossibly potent penetration of syringical injection of love and dying (events that command us to genuinely feel) with So Sorry Feed Me Baby Eat Me Like A Rich Food (consume another person). We have packaged even that into commodity.

In the crevices between the tectonics plates of moment, we feel the ache of dissonance on occasion. It grinds like Old, though we are Yet Young, and have forgotten. Ever since we picked up tools and found our “civilization,” we’ve forgotten how to delicately finger the velveteen skin of a single blade of baby grass. We have forgotten how to loafe. We have forgotten that we are happy; and that this is not a test, this is a game; that we are not mute, we are laughter; and all the world breathes with us in this music we need only to hit

play

play with me, stay with me, flowy lotus of nonprocedural juxtaposition of chaos and complexity utterly devoid of catechism drippingly infused with sex-sweet nectar of holographic need (only, now.).

Such is my prayer, my invitation, and such was Whitman’s.

The invitation begins, “Forget your plans.”

This invitation is to my own soul, my own soul only. This song is to you, my soul.

I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you. (19:17)

I am telling you, my soul. Hear my invitation, for I love you. I recognize your presence. I have not heard your voice in so long. I have told you my secrets. Now, I can do nothing but listen.

Blind and Deaf and Remembered: Ludwig von Beethoven

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Emma Kenney

Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the most renowned composers and pianists to walk the earth, even nearly 200 years after his death. Credited with writing 9 symphonies, 32 piano sonatas, 5 piano concertos, 16 string quartets, and countless other works, the man left quite an impact on the world. However, the life of this musician was not as splendid as one might be inclined to assume.

It is unknown for certain when Beethoven was born, but due to when the musician was baptized — December 17, 1770 — it is readily accepted he was born on or very near December 16, 1770. He was the oldest of three children born to Maria Magdalena and Johann van Beethoven in Bonn, Germany. Beethoven was introduced to music by his father at a young age, first in the form of the clavier, and then in the form of the violin. However, this was not a pleasant experience for the boy as his alcoholic father was often physically abusive toward him. There are multiple accounts of the little boy being beaten, deprived of sleep, or thrown into the family cellar by his father for any mistakes or hesitation while practicing music. Still, the boy developed not only talent but a love for music as well and performed his first concert at the age of seven on March 26, 1778. His father announced he was only six, because Mozart had been six at the time of his first performance. This ultimately led to Beethoven believing he was younger than he really was, even after being presented with his baptism certificate. It is unknown whether his brothers, Caspar and Johann, were also trained as musicians when they were born.

Meanwhile, the boy was attending Tirociniun, a local Latin school. He struggled to maintain proper grades, as school did not come easy to him. It has been theorized the composer might have been dyslexic. In his own words, “Music comes to me more readily than words.” Beethoven, however, did not have to struggle with school for long. He was withdrawn from school to study music full time with Christian Gottlob Neefe, the Court Organist, at the age of 10. Under Neefe’s wing, Beethoven published his first composition by the age of 12 and became the official Assistant Court Organist in 1784 at the age of 13. Finally, in 1787, the court sent him to Vienna to study music and composition. Legend states here Beethoven studied under Mozart, but there is barely enough evidence to support Beethoven having met Mozart, let alone studied music theory and composition under him during this short time. Only a few weeks later the boy returned to Bonn after receiving word his mother’s health was failing. By this point, he was the one supporting his family as his father’s drunkenness worsened and prevented him from being a productive member of society.

Beethoven returned to Vienna in 1792, hoping to study music under Joseph Haydn, who was accepted as the greatest living musician of that time. He did indeed study piano with the man, as well as counterpoint with Johann Albretchsberger and vocal composition with Antonio Salieri, both of whom were also considered top musicians of that age. Word spread of this rising musician with a gift for improvisation, and Beethoven made his debut in Vienna on March 29, 1795, supposedly performing his piano concerto in C Major. Soon after his debut Beethoven published his “Opus 1,”  which turned out to be incredibly successful both in terms of monetary gain and critical review.

Still Beethoven’s success continued to grow, leading to his performance of his Symphony No. 1 in C Major at the Royal Imperial Theatre of Vienna. His performance was incredibly successful, leading to become even more famous and anticipated. This piece successfully established him as one of the top composers of the age, though the musician would later grow to detest that composition.

After this performance Beethoven continued to compose. His work of that era included a popular ballet titled The Creatures of Prometheus performed at the Royal Imperial Theatre of Vienna over 25 times and “Symphony No. 3” (also known as the “Eroica Symphony”), published in honor of Napoleon in 1804 directly after he declared himself emperor. The “Eroica Symphony” yet again established Beethoven as something spectacular. This piece was incredibly different from anything that had been composed up until that time. In fact, it was so different in style during rehearsals the musicians struggled to understand how it was to be played.

After this, Beethoven decided he was ready to leave Vienna. Before he could do so, his friend Countess Anne Marie Erdody struck a deal with him. As long as he stayed in Vienna he would be paid a large annual sum, allowing him to live without worry of supporting himself or his family. By accepting this deal, Beethoven became one of the world’s first independent composers, not working for a church or any other group. This granted him complete freedom over what he was allowed to write and when he would write. Between his musical freedom and the large sum he was receiving, Beethoven experienced some of the best conditions musicians had been granted up until then.

Unfortunately, things would not continue to be easy for the composer. Around this time, Beethoven realized he was going deaf, though he would do everything within his power to conceal this fact from the public knowledge for as long as he possibly could. The weight of this deafness caused the man to fall into a numbing depression and struggle with suicidal thoughts, as well as an anger and hatred toward mankind. The man had already been an introvert up until this point, but after this he became downright antisocial and hostile. He fought with everyone around him, and he even went as far as to attempt to break a chair over the head of on of his closest and only  friends of that time, Prince Lichnowsky. He wrote:

I must confess that I lead a miserable life. For almost two years I have ceased to attend any social functions, just because I find it impossible to say to people: I am deaf. If I had any other profession, I might be able to cope with my infirmity; but in my profession it is a terrible handicap….O you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to you and I would have ended my life — it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me.

Despite his increasing deafness and hostility toward the world and everyone who was occupying it, Beethoven continued to compose, at times claiming music was the only thing convincing him to keep going in life and not take his own life. He composed over 100 pieces during this era, ranging from overtures and trios to symphonies and concerti. His work during this time included the incredibly famous and beloved “Moonlight Sonata” and Fidelio, which was the man’s only opera.

One theory for Beethoven’s deafness is arterial disease, as it explains not only his deafness but also his quick temper and moodiness. It is more readily accepted, however, the cause of his hearing impairment and ultimately deafness was the nasty typhus he battled over the summer of 1796.

Beethoven’s challenges continued in 1815 after the death of one of his brothers. He engaged in an enormous custody battle with his sister-in-law over her son and his nephew, lasting for seven years. Ultimately, Beethoven won the legal feud but lost the respect of many of his family members, including his nephew. Soon after this, Beethoven lost the majority of his beneficiaries and began to struggle financially to support himself and the family he felt such loyalty to and responsibility for.

However, Beethoven’s challenges were not over even here. The musician, who was entirely deaf by this point, lost his eyesight as well. What would have ended the musical careers of most composers only seemed to spur Beethoven on. During this period of his life Beethoven composed some of his most beloved pieces, such as his Missa Solemnis. During this period he also composed what can possibly be considered his most famous piece of all time, his “Symphony No. 9,” simply referred to by many as “Beethoven’s Ninth.”

Before going blind, the composer fell in love with a woman by the name of  Antonie Brentano. He wrote her a letter over the course of two days in 1812, but he never sent it. The letter stated: “My heart is full of so many things to say to you — ah — there are moments when I feel that speech amounts to nothing at all — Cheer up — remain my true, my only love, my all as I am yours.”

However, nothing would ever happen between the two. Unfortunately Brentano was already happily married when the composer developed feelings for her. It is believed she was the only woman Beethoven could ever bring himself to love.

The musician passed away on March 26, 1827 at the age of 56 in Vienna, Austria due to a post-hepatitic cirrhosis of his liver. Recently scientists examined fragments of his skull. They found high levels of lead, which causes some to believe the man died of lead poisoning instead. However, this theory is controversial and highly unpopular with most, as immediate evidence was found at the time of Beethoven’s to point to post-hepatitic cirrhosis of the liver. Yet another theory for Beethoven’s death is he died of a common cold, but once again this theory is not readily accepted, especially within the medical community.

He died without a family to bear his legacy or a son to carry on his lineage, as he never married or had children of his own, between his distaste for humanity and his supposed relentless heartbreak over Antonie Brentano. The closest thing he had was his nephew, Karl van Beethoven, who still hated him at this point in time. Though he didn’t have a family of his own, he had a large number of supporters. An estimated 20,000 people attended his funeral. The man’s last words were, “Plaudite, amici, comoedia finita est,” which translates from Latin to “Applaud, friends, the comedy is over.”

Beethoven faced many challenges over the course of his life; the odds were almost always stacked against him. Even so, Beethoven worked to overcome all he faced in order to produce the music he so loved. Through every situation, even overwhelming depression, he clung to music in order to find purpose. He faced financial peril, blindness, and deafness, and still the man is known as one of the greatest composers to have ever walked the face of the earth. Ultimately, Beethoven is a perfect example of why one should never allow challenges to stop one from achieving one’s dreams, even when those challenges seem like they should reasonably end all possibility of success, such as deafness to a musician.

Bibliography

“Beethoven Piece Is Discovered After 192 Years.” CORDIS. University of Manchester, 25 Oct.  2012. Web. 20 Sept. 2016.

“Biography: Beethoven’s Life — Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Website.” Ivbeethoven. Ivbeethoven, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2016.

“Ludwig Van Beethoven Biography.” Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2016.