POP-A-LOOZA: Christmas

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is called "Christmas."

This piece was originally written as commentary for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's Christmas show in 2019. I reprised it as a stand-alone piece in 2020, and offered it to Pop-A-Looza for a fresh view now. 

The Christmas season invites a measure of reflection. For me, anyway. I'm proud of a number of Christmas pieces I've written over the years, including Yoko Ono For Christmas, Three People Walk Into A Juice Bar, and A Place Called Christmas, as well as the piece shared at Pop-A-Looza this week, plus what I wrote this year for The 23rd Annual This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio Christmas Show. I will be posting another one of my favorites here within a few days.

For now, I want to add this mashup of a few other previous Christmas posts:

Does magic exist?

It's a fair question. As we near the end of this particularly trying year, it's easy and tempting to lose faith in the ideals we cherish, to release our grasp on the wonder we hold dear. 

But that's the very time we need this magic the most. Embrace the good within you. Look for the glow within those around you. And cast your gaze to the heavens for a star to guide you. Magic exists. Together, we can try to conjure a path forward.

I still love the Christmas story. I still love the trappings and tinsel, the brightly-lit images, the eyes all aglow, the stars of wonder, the message of peace on Earth, good will toward all. It's a prize and goal that transcends any specific creed: it's a faith that we can be better, that we can be good, that this world and its people can all be saved if we choose to believe in love.

Faith is tested constantly. It persists because that's what faith does.

Has there ever been a time that didn't try men's souls? I think not. Moments of tranquility have been fleeting and elusive throughout history. Yet we persist. That's what faith does for us.

We play the music. We hold our loved ones closely, and cherish our memories of those loved ones we can no longer embrace in a physical sense. They are with us still. They are with us always. This wish, this hope, this belief remains. Although it's been said many times, many ways, it's worth saying again and again and again.

Do you believe in magic?

I'm not asking your creed. My own faith is freelance, and I respect anyone who respects the goal of peace. Do you believe in that? I believe with you. It's as elusive as magic.  

Yet we believe.

We believe we can be better. We believe we can be good, sometimes phrased as nice rather than naughty. We believe we can become more than misfit toys or wingless angels, more than oddballs denied participation in reindeer games. We believe we can be saved, whether by the magic of the divine or by the magic mortals possess. We believe in a magic that seems far away and out of reach, but a magic that we feel, a magic we think can be real.

Peace on Earth. Good will toward all. We have to believe in magic. We are lost without that hope. We believe in hope. So, we believe in magic. 

Now and forever, we believe.

Happy Holidays. Some further thoughts of Christmas serve as the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

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