White Wine in the Sun

"White Wine in the Sun" is a Christmasy-song title from TimMinchin, who is an Australian-British comedian, actor, and musician, and bestknown for his musical comedy. He specializes in spoken/sung humour, incombination with his piano. He's like a thinking person's superlative loungeact. Some of his best bits are viewable on YouTube here and here. Here's the video clip where he sings"White Wine in the Sun;" the lyrics are below.  Read them, orlisten to the song. Bear with me; it's why I'm writing.

I really like Christmas
It's sentimental, I know, but I just really like it
I am hardly religious
I'd rather break bread with Dawkins than Desmond Tutu, to be honest

And yes, I have all of the usual objections
To consumerism, the commercialization of an ancient religion
To the westernization of a dead Palestinian
Press-ganged into selling Playstations and beer
But I still really like it

I'm looking forward to Christmas
Though I'm not expecting a visit from Jesus

I'll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They'll be drinking white wine in the sun
I'll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They'll be drinking white wine in the sun

I don't go in for ancient wisdom
I don't believe just 'cuz ideas are tenacious it means they are worthy
I get freaked out by churches
Some of the hymns that they sing have nice chords but the lyrics are dodgy

And yes I have all of the usual objections
To the miseducation of children who, in tax-exempt institutions,
Are taught to externalize blame
And to feel ashamed and to judge things as plain right and wrong
But I quite like the songs

I'm not expecting big presents
The old combination of socks, jocks and chocolate is just fine by me

Cos I'll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They'll be drinking white wine in the sun
I'll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They'll be drinking white wine in the sun

And you, my baby girl
My jetlagged infant daughter
You'll be handed round the room
Like a puppy at a primary school
And you won't understand
But you will learn someday
That wherever you are and whatever you face
These are the people who'll make you feel safe inthis world
My sweet blue-eyed girl

And if, my baby girl
When you're twenty-one or thirty-one
And Christmas comes around
And you find yourself nine thousand miles from home
You'll know what ever comes
Your brother and sisters and me and your Mum
Will be waiting for you in the sun
Whenever you come
Your brothers and sisters, your aunts and your uncles
Your grandparents, cousins and me and your mum
We'll be waiting for you in the sun
Drinking white wine in the sun
Darling, when Christmas comes
We'll be waiting for you in the sun
Drinking white wine in the sun
Waiting for you in the sun
Waiting for you... Waiting...

I really like Christmas
It's sentimental, I know...

The red-highlighted section -- since red is the Right Colour for This Timeof Year and all -- is what I find striking this morning. (Taking a deepbreath.)

I just glimpsed my cousin posting on Facebook about the expectedly, tiredly, ubiquitous "Christian Crowing" about how "Jesus is the Reason for theSeason." (NOTE: He is the same fellow that posts gun rights stuffabout how "he'll protect his family how he wants to," and thatclearly includes all manner of high-powered killing devices, but didn't Jesustell him to turn the other cheek and that everyoneis his brother/sister/family? Or was that just for and about those "inChrist" who are his family? Does his gun-protection really extend beyond those he knows by face, and by habit? I kind of doubt it ... I mean, whether they go to aJesus Christ church or not ... how can one tell such things, anyway?When the prisons are jammed with God-fearing-folk.) Which parts of the Seasondoes he mean, I wonder. The gross consumerism? The frothing shopping crowds?The carols? The food? The quaint and deeply-erroneous "Nativity"scenes? (For some context and perspective, here are two sources -- pointand "counterpoint".) But I digress,due to my ire.)

His misguided post reminds me how I am deliriously glad that I'm not going to be around him or anyof my believing family for "December 25th." Because it reminds me of myfalling-out with my father this time last year, when he lectured me about how Ishould type out "Christmas" in an email and not "Xmas"because "Jesus is the reason ..." blah blah blah. As if our family --raised virulently Church of Christ -- ever deigned to celebrate"Christmas" as a "religious" holiday. That was for theCatholics! Proper Protestants don't insert that cultural/secular horseshit into bible preachin'! Oh, but he's a Baptist or something now, andapparently it's now a religious holiday for him. Well, great.

My father is now closer to 70 than 60, and for him to be clearly wasting his time with meon this
topic is kind of sad/kind of pathetic. It's like he has not realizedI'm middle-aged myself and no longer respond to parental lectures, and that Ihave not responded to these in 30 some-odd years. And that's actually the rootof my anger ... that I can't get seen and acknowledged for the person I am bymy own FATHER. (More on this in a paragraph or two, and this is really my pointin mentioning Tim and his song.)

Back to my cousin ... since I have a hard time letting Ignorance pass unmolested -- especially theProud kind of Ignorance -- I had to attenuate my cousin's cultural,religious, and historical blindness and briefly remind him that axial tilt is thereason for the season, and that originally this time of year was Saturnalia inthe modern world (the Roman Empire at that time). That's all I said on his post, but he really should know that Saturnalia was based on another god, Mithras. Which then became DiesNatalis Solis Invicti (the "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun")and then was co-opted by the Christian mythology movement. Why doesn't he know this? He has the same access to web-based information that I do.

It's the sameinformation I gave my father a year ago, not that it made a damned bit ofdifference. He's going to only pay attention to information that reinforces hisbeliefs; this is called "confirmational bias" and uses "motivatedreasoning." (Here's a great reference article for these syndromes if youdon't know what all this means: MotherJones 2011.) The god-and-guns types, the ones who suggest I will burn in their hell because I don't believe as they do. Or that I am a terroristic evil because I voted for Obummer. Who judge me and find me lacking because I don't believe in fairy tales and invisible friends. And these are the people that Minchin mentions should be the "ones to make me feel safe in the world."

Right.

To suggest that Christ's Mass is the only thing ever celebrated at this timeof year -- which makes anyone celebrating it in that naming tradition to besupportive of Catholic dictates, since nowhere in the "bible" is timeof year  mentioned around a god baby's birth date, or how to celebrate it, orwhy trees and stockings have anything to do with that, or why red-and-green are thecolours and not purple-and-pink or blue-and-yellow -- reveals the depths ofone's ignorance or willing-blindness. The history of this holiday stretchesback to its pagan roots. "Fallowness and fertility" would be moreaccurate "reasons for the season." At the minimum, in modern terms, it is axialtilt. If the Earth did not tilt, we'd have one same season, not a trendfrom winter to spring to summer to fall. Look at the equator for an example ofreal-world minimal impact of this axial tilt! Yay for us humans … at least some of us know this now.

To bludgeon others with this misinformed silliness is some order of magnitude farther into nefarious behaviour. Are they just mean? Just arrogant in their ignorance? They know that not everyone believes like they do; after all, they know me. Or do they? Probably not. What's the point of family again?

Sigh.

So I ponder this "family tradition" of migrations to parentalfolds and family-based folly, and all the very-not-fun misery such pilgrimages inspire. The groaningand dreading. The over-consumption of liquor to dull the roar, the escapism ofsports on the television, movies at the theatre. I refuse to be complicit in this whitewash imaginary game, wherein we all pretend to "get along" for 48 hours. The only reality where we would protect each other might be if the zombies came on Xmas Day and trapped us all in my aunt's house!

Mostly I just marvel at TimMinchin's words to his child. I cannot decide if I'm more (1) gobsmacked that inspite of this torture and bullshit, and this dislike and distrust it engenders, that families still (mostly) manage tocling together -- for better or worse -- through these odd little holiday rituals,or (2) convinced that the only families that really like each other and doanything more than dysfunction are the secular ones, wherein wine is quaffedand children really do grow up learning to be tolerant and accepting of thosearound them. You know, where they really do love each other. The religious families seem to mostly excel only at churning outlittle godbots who don't think to question anything of importance in the world,or world-class avoidance specialists like myself, who want nothing more than toforget the dog-and-pony religious frippery, along with its posturing, bleatingbullshit.

Bottom line: Minchin’s existence sounds more like heaven to me than anystory I ever heard in  a church about clouds and angels and a vengefulGod-the-Father and his torture-fetish boy (who is also God-the-Father alongwith some Sacred Ghost, although supposedly there are no ghosts, everyone diesand goes to the aforementioned heaven or hell … but wait, that’s circular logic, how can a god-trinity have a ghost in it when there are no ghosts because thetrinity-god sends everyone to heaven or hell … gaaaahhhhhh! That noise you hearshould be your brain exploding ... .).

For those of you with young children please mind Minchin's words, would you?Impress upon your children that you love them no matter what, and that theyalways have a place at home. Drink wine. Celebrate things and focus onsimilarities. Don't wear blinders. Don't be so fucking judgmental. Becauseparents that emphasize "judging" over "acceptance" willhave children that do the same, and let me tell you -- that will blow up inyour faces.