Ten lords-a-leaping

On the tenth day of Christmas, our thoughts look ahead
toward the end of the season, and what has been said
about goings and comings and why there's a time
in each mundane year that may still be sublime.

If it is so obvious that "we" is more important than "me", and if it is so apparent that no one really gets to where they are (positively or negatively) without lots and lots of help from others, and if it is clear that the very notion of a self-made person is fundamentally flawed, why do we insist upon believing it? These are very strong, very pervasive and very persistent fictions, but we as a society, that is, we in the West, particularly America, have absolutely not problem accepting them not only as "true", but as givens, as if this is how the world actually works. Don't you find that strange? I do.

On Facebook and in my browsings elsewhere, I see a lot of ranting and raving about how silly it is to believe in things that are patently not true (like Santa Claus) or that have been "utterly refuted" (whatever that means, like the myth of Jesus or religion). Could it be that we have simply exchanged on "religion" for another? What I have also noticed is that there are widespread, impassioned pleas for rationality, as if this were a value in itself. How many of us have stopped to ask what "rational" really is?

The word derives from the Latin ratio, which has something to do with procedures, systems and ordering, but fundamentally it is a manner of separating, of dividing one thing from another. We see this in our English word "ratio" which expresses a proportion (e.g. ¼, that is one part of four). While dividing, sifting and sorting are extremely helpful skills, they are not the only ones that we should develop. We need to be even more adept at putting things together, of synthesizing, generating, and creating as well. If we extoll the dividing side, the ratio, we neglect the producing side. We become – pretty much as we are in general – unbalanced.

No, what I would make a plea for is creative-reasonable thought, or reasonably creative thought. Rational thought is not the epitome of thought, it is simply one of many kinds of thought. Over the course of human history, we have had other dominant types of thinking, to be sure. Rational thought is merely the last in a long line of them, and not necessarily the most advantagous generally speaking. You see, at times, it may be worth our while to even think about thinking itself.

That's another reason why this time of year is not only special but important. It is a time for us to exercise our minds in other ways, in positive, other-oriented, creative, and even magical and mythical ways. All of these kinds of thinking are part of who we are as human beings, and it seems such a waste to devote our time and energy to such a limited part of who we can be. But, you have to be open to it … to the possibilities these kinds of thoughts can bring and to the Spirit of the Season which is just another way of saying the same thing.