by
William Graddy
The madcap gift exchange has gone the way of ventriloquists,
singing cowboys, and clean jokes in mass entertainment.
SKU numbers and infrared readers leave little room for creativity
at Customer Service, and besides, marketing experts have
so thoroughly stigmatized the uncool choice that we increasingly
opt for gift cards or flat-out electronic transfers of credit
instead. We dread almost beyond temporary incontinence the
glazed look in a teenager’s eyes if we pick the wrong
album, or the stony stare eight-year-olds have perfected
when unwrapping video games with chips sufficient for mere
interplanetary travel.
by
Thomas S. Buchanan
Advent
is a season of preparation for the celebration of the birth
of our Lord. It spans four Sundays in the West and forty
days in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, and in both it is
traditionally a time of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving.
Of all the seasons of the Christian year, it is perhaps
the one that has lost the most ground to our culture. The
weeks of Advent are times of parties and celebrations, instead
of fasting. The quiet, meditative season has given way to
one of great hustle and bustle. The period of almsgiving
has become the high holy days of materialism.
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