{Crisis at Christmas (2)}[25th December 1987]

[Redbook4:258-259][19871225:0004]{Crisis at Christmas (2)}[25th December 1987]

19871225.0004

This Circles reading of Christmas* – supported by public, private and personal experience – suggests that it should be recaptured for Holiness not for some vaguely 'moral' or 'religious' reason, but because unless it is properly handled it will continue to feel wrong and give rise to unhappiness. This applies as much to agnostics and even atheists as to worshippers and other believers: Holiness need not, I suspect, require a conscious belief in God.**

It is possible that the origin of the feasting, drinking, presents and other socialising at Christmas may be as much to drown (and bury) our sorrows of Midwinter as to celebrate the Turn of the Year. Eating and drinking are certainly not incompatible with religious experience (any more than are Love and Harmony).

My personal preference is to eat too much, get rather drunk, ***buy a few nice things for myself, and let [W] do all the work. Only recently have I begun to learn – since I started spending Christmas with [W] instead of my previous family****, I think – that I can convert the underlying melancholy into a kind of joy by concentrating willingly on the Circles attributes and qualities of +C†I~.#

*[See last previous entry but one.]

**{!}

***{! But cf. [[Redbook4:261][19871225:1315][{Christmas Day}][25th December 1987],] 261}

****[i.e. parents & siblings]

#cf.III.[e.g.[Redbook3:25-26][19870326:1543d]{The Round House [continued(3)]}[26^th March 1987] ] (early)

[& cf. [Redbook3:140-141][19870407:0940f](CHI-RHO)[7th April 1987]]

[PostedBlogger18072017]