December! Difference

Entering this month, we have recently experienced Halloween and then Thanksgiving. All that while we were reminded that Christmas approaches. Of course, New Year’s follows closely making this season the holiday trifecta.

Celebrating the close of one year and the beginning of yet another seems appropriate. Yet this season is anchored by Christmas whether you are Christian or not. The season is a celebration of life and its meaning. Whatever religious belief you practice, or not, we all are reminded of life, love, future and death. It is the cycle that matters. We are reminded of this throughout the year, yet we seem surprised by the recall each time.

When a family experiences death of a loved one, there is inevitable sorrow. Sometimes anger. Grief at any rate, we live through shock and ponder of death. Yet it is automatic. Life begins with birth and ends with death. It is the in-between time that matters most. Birth is a promise of life developing, death is the end of that development. Life lived, however, witnesses the development and value of each individual life story. Of course, memory of the person lives on for many years. Truly historic persons lived on much longer.

But eternal life? That is the business of theology and religious creed. No one dictates or should, what this is. That doesn’t stop millions from dictating their systems of belief and fashioning entire cultures to follow suit.

America is known as a Christian nation, but formally it is not that. A majority of Americans will vow some vestige of Christian belief, but church attendance proves the lack of that belief. Although this is the task of religious institutions, it is not the job of a culture to identify with one religious belief or another.

Nor should it be society’s job to ascribe to a specific creed. The fact that human beings ponder the meaning of life is the central value of this discussion. It is not what a person believes or not, it matters, though, that they wonder and ponder.

Life is complex. There are many unanswered questions accompanying our journey through life. Period. That we think of this at all is powerful and worthy. The conclusion is not the point.

Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or whatever, is not the point. We each are more than one. We are enlarged by belief systems. The more the merrier. Scientific fact is a stable reality, not belief. It constantly stretches and morphs into significant points of understanding for each individual. Few are at the same point of understanding than another at the same time. We travel through belief systems. It is fresh constantly.

It is important that we participate in this process. The struggle to know and understand is a constant challenge. It makes life worth living because of it.

Embrace difference. It is the key to individuality. And worth.

December 2, 2024