#96: Why I Am Listening to Christmas Music Early This Year

I've definitely always thought of Christmas and the holiday time in general as being incredibly cheerful and I notice the human spirit rise. But I really also enjoy viewing it in terms of hope and striving for betterment for all and being more hyperaware of others' comfort and joy. Thank you Lauren. It's surely never too soon to start spreading the hopefulness. 

- Amanda 

Lauren Culbertson    laurenbrooksculbertson@gmail.com 

Why I Am Listening to Christmas Music Early This Year

I love Christmas music.

Most years, I am pretty disciplined when it comes to waiting to listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. I don't want to spoil the specialness of holiday songs and listen to them out of the context of the holiday season.

But this year feels different and I have shamelessly listened to "O Holy Night," "Joy to the World," and (of course) "All I Want For Christmas Is You" a lot recently.

Last week while traveling with a friend in Edinburgh, I witnessed a pretty explicit act of racism between a white bus driver and a man who appeared to be an African immigrant. My friend and I ended up leaving the bus to take another. I walked away feeling heavy, helpless, hopeless, cynical. Fuming. My mind kept going back to the thought of "how are we ever going to see a world where this doesn’t exist." And even worse, "why bother if nothing is ever going to change?"

Someone recently was talking to me about how today we live in a world of cynicism and how he just wants to have that "Good Will Hunting" moment with people, that scene where Robin Williams embraces a hysterical Matt Damon and repeats, "It's not your fault, it's not your fault…" It is not our fault that cynicism has become the air we breathe and our hearts are being hardened with what feels like one disappointment after another. 

The antidote to this? Hope.

Even more, I think to not have hope means you have the privilege to avoid pain…a privilege many people don't have. To have hope is to take a deep breath, lean into pain, and know this is the only way forward for a better someday. There's no other option.

In the Christian tradition, the Christmas story is the story of hope. A hurting, confused, and lost world receives an answer to their pain and a promise of a better life on earth and beyond through the infant Jesus. Even if you don't prescribe to the Christian faith, and perhaps even if the holidays are a time of stress for you, I think there is a little something in the Christmas season that we all look forward to, hope for. Even if it is just Starbucks cups and the first snow. And this language of hope is found in holiday music. 

I won't tell if you need some a little early this year.

Lauren's first-person bio: 

Someone once told me that I "move" when I see the “earth out of alignment,” which is just a fancy way of saying that I’ve always had a natural inclination to pay attention to what happens in the margins; that’s where the most exciting things happen, after all. That brought me to Restore NYC, an anti- sex trafficking nonprofit, where I work to inspire generosity and help our fundraising team make data-driven decisions. I experience the most joy in my work when I witness two things clicking inside someone: sex trafficking is a major issue that is closer than we think, but it has a solution that we can all be a part of.