Beyond Christmas
Every year I say to myself that I'll be more regular and try to be more prolific with blogging like I used to be once before. However, each time I decide to do so, life intervenes with its deadlines and commitments and before I even know it the festive season sneaks out of the woodwork and am back with the Christmas specials.
Anyway for the last two years or so I got a little too busy and so was not able to keep up even with that tradition. It's not that I didn't try but just that there was so much going on that it was hard to focus on something that would serve as inspiration to get me started.
The last five-six years have been somewhat mellow and bittersweet. In 2019 my family and I were trying to make sense of life without our parents and especially how to celebrate Christmas - or life for that matter - without the two people in our lives whose presence provided inspiration and purpose. It's not that we got everything sorted out but let's just say we are still working on it.
On top of that, I have just immigrated to the US, and so am still trying to adjust to a new life and a new environment. So far it has been a pleasant experience because am in a town and state with an interesting history. More on that would be covered in blogposts to come - at least, that's the idea!
If we look beyond our lives and at the world out there, it won't be an exaggeration to say that we are all at a vulnerable place. Healthwise, we remain prone to strange new viruses that highlight how fragile and vulnerable we are as a race. Economically, businesses worldwide are still ambling along unsure about what the future holds. Politically, polarization has taken a life of its own and it is hard to have a proper debate these days without getting into a battle. Security wise, there is so much upheaval and uncertainly between countries that it is assumed that a spark is all that's needed for a major conflict to erupt.
Or has it already?
So where does my blogging fit into all of this? Or for that matter, of what use were all those blogposts in a world where the discourse is no longer geared towards dialog but validation?
I guess there are no pat answers to these questions -- and maybe that after all is the point for all this word play. We may not have all the answers in a neat package, and if that be the case, then, how do we celebrate Christmas in such an atmosphere?
Or for that matter, how do we even celebrate anything at all?
Perhaps the point is not about celebrations, or even having explanations for what we do or don't do. Perhaps the answer lies in something very simple - managing things as best as we can and figuring things out as we go along.
Some would say that it's a cop out, and others would insist that it's the coward's road to self validation. But then again, as I said earlier, there are no easy answers. Or maybe we are too uncomfortable to do the very thing that we are required to do as individuals, that is, make a difference, be a salt, be that one person who changes things.
These seem like high and mighty goals but are they really? Maybe our blogs can play a small part in this big project, and maybe just maybe, someone somewhere will read and re-think pet assumptions. Maybe the words we write are not just a futile cry in the wilderness that no one ever gets to hear, and perhaps, these words will reach a listening ear and actions would follow.
Or maybe nothing will happen, but at least we tried.
And that's all what matters in the end...
we tried and did our best!
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