Advent Devotion 20 – Beyond the ’50’s?

What are the biggest problems facing our country and our culture? We may have many different responses to this query. There are lots of things to choose from.

In the book, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963 by Robert Dallek, there are comments about the state of US society in the late ’50’s. What were perceived as some of the biggest problems? Literary critic Dwight Macdonald is cited as referring to the “terrible shapelessness of American life.” [p. 229] Macdonald describes Americans as “an unhappy people, a people without style, without a sense of what is humanly satisfying.” Editor of Commentary, Norman Podhoretz complained of the “boredom one senses on all sides, the torpor, the anxiety, the listlessness.” [p. 274] These perspectives are echoed in the sentiments of Kennedy. Dallek tells us, “He shared a belief with most commentators and analysts that America had lost its sense of national purpose, that the material well-being of the 1950’s had translated into a ‘bland, vapid, self-satisfied, banal’ society lacking the moral resolve to meet domestic and world problems.” [p. 274]

I wasn’t alive in the ’50’s, so I can’t comment on the accuracy of these impressions. But in thinking about our situation today, I think we have slipped from boredom, torpor, and shapelessness, to self gratification and self obsession. What’s in it for me? What do I get? What do I want? And how can I get it? NOW! There’s a lot of self gratification and spoiling that goes on at Christmas that stems from just this kind of self absorption.

But at Christmas time, we also see an enormous swell in generosity, charity, giving, and sharing. After all, it’s Christmas. I was in a produce store last week, and a customer was short on cash and could not pay her whole bill. Someone else in line called out to the clerk, “Let her go. Add it to my bill. It’s Christmas.” Every day in the paper we see pictures and stories of people giving food and toys and gifts to those in need. This morning on the radio there was a story about a Mexican woman who has started a tradition of cooking Christmas dinner for homeless people. She had no family here, so she decided to make dinner for some homeless men and invite them over to be with her for Christmas. At this time of year, there is a crack in self obsession and generosity and good will come pouring out. The best thing we can do for ourselves this season and every season is to help someone else. That is what rescues us from the tyranny of selfishness. Thank goodness for this season that shows us who we can be and gives us a sense of what actually is “humanly satisfying.”

Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
Psalm 82:3-4

Prayer: We give thanks for this season of giving which takes us outside of ourselves and helps us to see the needs of others. We pray that the spark of generosity lit these holy days may burn year round bringing comfort and joy to all. Amen.