On Nov. 9, 1964, Elvis Presley released the longstanding staple Christmas song of the holiday season, “Blue Christmas.” Interestingly, he actually recorded the song seven years earlier, on Sept. 5, 1957.
At the time, he did not want to record it. According to multiple sources, “The late Millie Kirkham, the Nashville singer who sang soprano during the session, recalled Presley saying, ‘Let’s just get this over with.’ During an interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, she said everyone involved in the recording had the same reaction. ‘That’s one record the record company will never release,’ she said.”
Presley’s attitude about recording the 2-minute, 7-second song came to mind in several recent conversations with first responders and military veterans. In particular, in my capacity as a fire and police chaplain, I had a conversation with one combat veteran, who lamented about the Christmas holidays — “Let’s just get it over with …”
Christmas comes this Wednesday. That’s good news. However, to get to Christmas you have to get by Dec. 21, the longest night of the year, the winter solstice. The longest night of the year is tough stuff for those of us who mourn the loss of loved ones. It is an odd combination of events, just days apart, while others are looking forward to the holidays.
Paradoxically for many first responders, the Christmas and New Year holiday stretch is a gauntlet to be endured. Too many folks behave poorly and suffer the consequences from alcohol and drug abuse. First responders have to clean up the mess that’s left behind. No matter how hard you try, you simply cannot “un-see” the results of traffic accidents and the other mayhem associated with the season.
Fortunately many churches in the area offer a meaningful Winter Solstice–Blue Christmas service; including the Westminster United Methodist Church and St. Paul’s United Church of Christ.
Many folks will refer to the concept of “closure” when addressing the loss of a friend, family member or loved-one. If that works for you, more power to you. I believe that there is no such thing, – there is only a “new normal.”
In recent years that new normal has been on display with the annual Catherine’s Cause ceremony. In “Candlelight vigil honors traffic fatality victims in Carroll County: ‘To remember is what makes us alive,’” a recent article in the Carroll County Times, writer Mary Grace Keller reported upon “the 13th annual ‘I Will Remember You’ remembrance ceremony [on December 5th] to honor those who died in traffic accidents. Local police and Catherine’s Cause presented the event, allowing relatives of those who have died to reflect and light candles in memory of their loved ones…
“Phil and Cindy Mullikin started Catherine’s Cause in 2007 to fight to prevent drunken driving and, in the process, honor their daughter, Phil Mullikin said. Catherine Anne Mullikin was killed by a drunken driver Nov. 28, 1998, when she was just 20 years old.”
The ceremony, at the Church of the Ascension, was appropriately led by Carroll County Sheriff Jim DeWees and Lt. Rebecca Bosley, commander of the Maryland State Police Westminster Barrack. Bosley read quotes about the deceased as DeWees read the names. DeWees and Bosley, and the several dozen police officers who attended the ceremony, know all too well what it is like to clean-up the mess left behind by folks who text and drive, drink and drive, or drive in an irresponsible manner.
For many, the Christmas season has become a vampire squid that has wrapped itself around our neck, annexed Thanksgiving and Halloween and turned November and December into an endurance contest of relentless responsibilities, expectations, and shallow end-of-the-year celebrations.
Who knows, maybe the early church and John Calvin were right. I have taken to this space before to observe, “The early church discouraged feasts, the exchange of gifts, and evergreen decorations, or anything that might be associated with the pagan celebration. In the sixteenth century, John Calvin objected to celebrating Christmas. It was his position that celebrating Christmas, ‘promoted irreligious frivolity.’”
Changes in the circumstances of our life are a natural part of life. In my capacity as a chaplain for the Westminster Fire Department and the Maryland Troopers Association Lodge 20, I often stress that folks who deal with death and tragedy on the job, or have suffered a loss in their personal life, should find a friend and ‘keep talking about it.’
Most importantly, take time to celebrate Christmas with special people in your life. Take time to “be here now,” and fully appreciate and grasp all that is good in your life. God did not bring you this far to drop you on your head.
For more information about Catherine’s Cause go to www.catherinescause.com. Or contact them via email at info@catherinescause.com or call (410) 374-8987.