As a locums/independent contractor, a physician has considerably more freedom in deciding where and when he or she will work. For several years now, I've taken call on Thanksgiving in order to have Christmas off. If necessary, I'll take call on other holidays too. For Christmas is the ONLY holiday I care about being off all year long.
Because I am on-call, I don't do Black Friday. I find other things to occupy my time.
(I really, Really, REALLY wanted a set of Paula Dean cookware, but I happily paid full price on Grey Saturday to avoid everything that goes with getting the not-so-fantastic sale price.)
After a long day at the hospital on this Thanksgiving eve, I spent several hours beginning the re-work of a Christmas decoration I bought back in 2006. I finished the job on Black Friday.
It's called the Christmas Cross. It's a simple white wooden cross on a stand (mine is about 2 1/2 feet tall) - wrapped in white Christmas lights on white wire.
The Manger means NOTHING without the Cross.
It brought me great comfort in those first few Christmases without Pops. It had an amazing calming effect on me (and oddly enough, my animals - who would curl up under it) . . . and/so, when Christmas 2006 moved on to meet his 2005 brothers, I moved it to a corner of my bedroom to use in meditation and prayer.
But back in 2008, the year a black man was elected President of the United States, several left-wing blogs suddenly took issue with the Christmas Cross . . . likening displaying the lighted Cross to burning one on your front lawn - ala the KKK.
The mini-lights were "spikey", you see, and resembled flames. Anyone who did not see this had to be a "moron" . . . and a racist.
I found the premise, such as it was, offensive in the extreme and did blog-battle with "proud liberal Americans" on several of those threads . . . most notably (at least locally) engaging Joe Killian at the N&R's "Front Pew". To this day, I think Killian was grand-standing in a punkish way - anything for the statcounter at the N&R.
(When you think about it, it's very Ethan Feinsilver.)
I also posted a rebuttal on Housecalls.
The saddest thing about all this to me is that the woman who came up with this idea (a Winston-Salem native) was, by all reports, a devout Christian and had nothing but the best of intentions. She gave a portion of her profits to charity. I've searched and searched online this year, but can find no vendor selling the Cross.
In short, it appears that the faux-traumatized lefty bloggers got their way and killed her little business . . . and her dream of helping people put Christ back in Christmas . . . not-to-mention whatever good her charitable contributions were doing.
It's bothered me ever since.
Last year, I resolved to re-work my Christmas Cross - by adding blue lights (the lights on my tree are blue LED's) . . . in an effort to perhaps make it less "offensive" to those fragile beings who might suffer PTSD symptoms from Christmas lights. Alas, I started the project after the holidays, and was not able to find the lights I wanted - vendors were all sold out. I put it all aside to work on this year when the season rolled back around.
This year, in re-working the Cross, I started out with LED blue & white lights on a white wire (the LED's, ordered online, cost me a small fortune). But the lights were spaced six inches apart - which gave you more wire than lights on the Cross. And when the Cross was plugged in, you could see the thing from space. It was WAY too much.
It would blind the baby Jesus Himself.
I stripped the Cross bare again, and settled on side-by-side staggered strands of blue and white mini-lights (only 2 inches apart). It took forever to get the thing re-wrapped, but I think makes for a nice effect. It has more lights, but a much softer glow.
And somehow, quite by accident, I managed to string/connect the lights in such a fashion that if I unplug one plug, the cross goes from bright blue & white to a very luminous, ethereal blue.
I told a good friend of mine . . . a nurse who has staffed the hospital nursery where I currently work FOREVER - and who happens to be black . . . about all my contortions to re-fashion a Christmas decoration that I was DETERMINED to display less "offensive" to those who could only see the burn.
She is old enough to have seen burning crosses - or to have known/loved someone who did.
I asked her, quite earnestly, if there was something I was not getting. As corny as it sounds, she really is like a Mama-away-from-home to me. She fusses over me - and feeds me - and drags me to community events she thinks I might enjoy (and I have enjoyed them - and sometimes learned something). I knew she would tell me the truth.
Honestly, I was surprised by her answer.
First, she thought the fuss that was made by all the indignant liberals two years ago was RIDICULOUS . . . commenting that the people who were doing the loudest complaining had never experienced the mind-numbing terror that came with a real cross burning in their front yard . . . and that it "took a whole lot of hate in your heart" to see a burning cross in a Christmas decoration . . . or to attribute evil intent (or mental deficit) to those who displayed it.
And second, maybe the people who saw crosses burning in mini-lights were the ones who actually needed a little psychiatric help.
Lastly, she commented that the fact I had been bothered by the fuss . . . and had gone to so much trouble . . . revealed that my own heart was in the right place, and maybe I needed to stop worrying about what the Cross-haters think.
Because they are going to HATE no matter what.
And so I have. The Christmas Cross will be displayed from my kitchen window this year. I think it will be a nice change of pace from "the ball wars" on Dave's Mountain.
I'm actually more worried now that people might fancy me a Duke fan.
And I am a Duke fan of sorts this year . . . but that's another story . . . involving another nurse . . . and something else to be very thankful for.
12/4 Update: My thanks to Dr. Joe Guarino for linking this post.
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7 comments:
"the ball wars" on Dave's Mountain...all those yokels did wuz copy what Greensboro's Lindley Park neighborhood has been doin' fer years now. Look at the News & Heckler and it even tells you who started it, and how to make yer own "balls", that is if you don't have any. The Missus and I used to cruise over there each December for a viewing, that is until the traffic got to be too much. And, all those wire mesh balls become redundant after 'bout six blocks.
Then again there's always Tanglewood....
Love the Christmas Cross. In the yard just up the street is a Nativity backed by three BLUE crosses. You are absolutely right the manger has no meaning without the cross. I am thankful that both were just the beginning and not the end.
One of these days, I'm going to have somebody make me a Manger - and wire it with lights to put under the Cross.
In terms of colors for the Cross, the royal purple would be nice - but it does not translate well into Christmas lights - looks pink.
In term of my kitchen window, since the first time I displayed the Cross (in 2006), a Camellia bush has become quite massive. The Cross can only be seen from an angle now - as opposed to lighting up the whole front yard.
I kind of like the notion that it's always there, but you have to look for it.
That is my exact plans for next year. I intend, Lord willing, to put a Nativity scene and the Three crosses in my front yard. I am collecting barn timber as of today. I found an old barn that is mine for the taking. I would love to be able to get it to you and build the scene that you want built. Who knows, God does answer prayers.
Lord, willing, P;)
And yes, He does answer prayer. Not always in our time - or the fashion we would desire.
But He does answer.
FWIW, Christmas is what you make it. Nobody can take Christ out of your Christmas but you. Each of us will choose to celebrate (or not) the holiday in our own way. You should not let others have so much influence over the way you feel about Christmas (or Easter, or any other holiday).
With that in mind, allow me to wish you and yours Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, whichever you choose. Or, if you choose, neither of the above.
P.S. I still think a brightly lit cross on anybody's front yard is way too reminiscent of bad days gone by. I guess maybe that has a lot to do with the fact that I lived through those bad days and experienced them in a way few have. Thanks for the link your your post, though.
Len, it IS hard not to take allegations of racism - or mental/character defect - to heart. I expect those flinging the nasties knew that.
The point of my post kind of was that I'm going to stop worrying so much about what other people see (or, I think, more accurately, insist upon seeing) in simple Christmas lights.
Like you said, it's a choice.
"Days-gone-by" is NOT now. That's a choice too.
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