Recalling Holidays That Brought The Greatest Gift
December 27th, 2007, 3:05 pm · 8 Comments · posted by Joaquin
And so it is Christmas, and what you have done?
That’s an opening line from one of many fine songs that John Lennon wrote, with the above lyric being part of a song that would become a holiday classic. Lennon’s song is one of reflection in which the listener is asked to look back at the year nearly past and ask if it has been time well spent.
Such is the holiday season that we all enjoy the present while recalling Christmas seasons of our times past. For many of us well into adulthoold it’s also a time to think back to holiday seasons of our youth - and the people who made it possible - chiefly, our parents. Those of us of the Baby Boomer vintage are often the sons and daughters of parents who endured and survived the Great Depression and World War II, two consecutive eras that tested the resolve of America, and would produce what would be called “the Greatest Generation.”
That greatest generation went through times and hardships that succeeding American generations cannot imagine. Today, American teenage boys bury themselves in their rooms with their X Boxes and games of make believe. Boys of their age in the 1930s and 1940s were either working as shoe shine boys in a desperate attempt to help their cash-strapped families, or preparing to go to war to help save the world from fascist dictators.
Conservative columnist Cal Thomas reflected on this recently in a holiday column in which he wrote about how far he had come in making an income far behind what his parents could have dreamed of earning. Thomas wrote that the amount of money his father made “would be considered poverty wages by today’s standards,” and yet the columnist says, “I never heard him complain. He always provided for us and taught us to be grateful for what we had and to live within our means.”
The gratefulness and the wisdom of those words ring true to many of us who grew up the children of parents who endured harsh times in their own childhoods. My parents were of that mold, the children of the Great Depression, and who as adults and parents never generated a considerable income as judged by today’s standards. My siblings and I didn’t have much growing up in the way of fancy stuff, i.e. a nice house, new cars, lots of new clothes, but I can’t recall ever being bummed out about it.
That’s because we had something much better - the unconditional and unbroken love of two parents who pored their every being into their children when they weren’t working to provide for them. Like Thomas, I sometimes look at my paycheck and think about how much more is in it that what my own Dad made, and yet, I don’t think I’m one bit happier than he was, nor do I think I’m his equal in the fatherhood department.
My father’s generation was generally content with what they had because they knew how little they use to have. That would all change with the rise of the American economy and mass marketing that relentlessly promotes all sorts of creature comforts.
“Beginning with the Baby Boomers, we began to transition from being content with what we have to a sense of being entitled to ever-expanding pieces of the economic pie,” Thomas writes. “We demand more money, more things, more pleasure. Why has the acquisition of `more’ produced so much less - less contentment, less happiness?”
Those questions delve into religious and spiritual realms, of which I’m not qualifed to address. I would say, though, columnist Thomas is on to something when he asks: “Has more stuff - or its pursut - assuaged you? If not, maybe you were given the wrong gift.”
The greatest gift, it turns out, doesn’t come wrapped in a present. It comes in the embrace of a mother or an abrazo from a Dad, and feeling the glow of it all, and simply being content with the greatest gift of all.
December 27th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Great blog post.
My parents bought my children (ages 4 and 10) a WII for Christmas, and although I am grateful to my folks, I just want to throw that damn thing out the window.
Never did I receive comparable, costly gifts, nor did I ever ask for them. I was very appreciative of what little my folks could provide.
Boy, have times changed.
December 28th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Thanks for the post. Times have indeed changed, from bicycles at Christmas to Wiis, of which I can’t believe any can be found right now.
December 28th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
A mothers love, a sweet embrace, etc etc are all highly over rated. I will take a good Lever action Rifle, or one of a thousand material things I can think of. My ol’ daddy was a mechanic, and as I look back on it, not a very good mechanic, and we were poor. I have done much better, but not to the point where I have “arrived”, and I still would like to have a few more material things. Materialistic…damn right. I’ve been poor, and it sucks. You feel gooders can keep the hugs and kisses for christmas, I’ll take the Rifle!
December 28th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
“thou protest too much”…..it seems that you have issues. There is so much anger in your words that you runneth over for attention from the readers and need this response in order to discuss your issues. So lets see.. you state FIRST that you do not need the physical motherly touch….indicates that you are in desperation for a hug and havent had one in a very long time. You state your anger second by blaming your the hardships/poverty as responsible for YOUR lack of successes; as suppose you had all the material things, YOU would have turned out happy and successful/ARRIVED. Then you believe that you need more and yet you DO have more (as you state) and yet you are still unhappy. As you state, ‘I HAVE been poor and it sucks”….well are you stuck in the past? Are you always going to blame the past and never move on or forward and if so,,,then whose fault is it then or better asked…when is it your fault? Oh! as far as the rifle…..such a jungian symbol for anger and possibly a freudian symbol for lacking the daddy love…has anyone ever told you that you might be manic depressant? .. ANd if so, it is YOUR responsibility to make your life happy and productive and not your past. I hope that you do not procreate and teach your child to blame MOMMY for all of your lackings.
December 29th, 2007 at 9:40 am
dr…are you a certifiable loon, or are you just one of these psyco babblers. The subject of the day was : “The greatest gift, it turns out, doesn’t come wrapped in a present. It comes in the embrace of a mother or an abrazo from a Dad, and feeling the glow of it all, and simply being content with the greatest gift of all”. I was simply responding to that premise. No anger, and no need for psyco babble, certainly not from the likes of Jung, a Nazi who, if he had his way would have sent Freud to the gas chamber. And by the way, had Jung and the Nazi’s he supported been successful in WWII, and after what Hitler did to Jews, what do you think he would have thought of Mexicans ? But I digress… Please go buy yourself a dog that you can pet and hold, and hug all you want. I’m sure it will make you feel better. And by the way, I went to Academy yesterday and bought a S&W Sigma Auto Pistol for $ 249.00 ! Great buy, Isn’t life great !
December 30th, 2007 at 12:02 am
Gosh! It seems taxpayer really is confused. First, taxpayer states:
“A mothers love, a sweet embrace, etc etc are all highly over rated. I will take a good Lever action Rifle, or one of a thousand material things I can think of”.
Then taxpayer states:
“The subject of the day was : “The greatest gift, it turns out, doesn’t come wrapped in a present. It comes in the embrace of a mother or an abrazo from a Dad, and feeling the glow of it all, and simply being content with the greatest gift of all”.
SO what is it? Are you happy with the abrazo of a parent on one day and then the rifle suffices the next day? By the way, I really dont care if you did or did not buy the rifle. Just be mature enough to be responsible on how to use it so that you or someone else does not get injured. Lastly, I have many reasons to be content. And yes, family is first on my list that I do not need something that tarnishes or is hard and COLD (as a substitute) to make me just squeal with happiness:)
December 30th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Taxpayer is an angry person. I think that taxpayer should get some help so that he or she can be happy and not need to be telling the online world that he or she has had a sad life as well as not being poor or not needing mom or dad’s embraces. It seems that he or she states she has bought a rifle only to show a cry for help. SO, enough yelping, get help!!!
March 26th, 2008 at 6:45 am
John Lennon Baby Clothes
Please keep these excellent posts coming.