Christmas plays a large role in my stories. I ought not to, but I feel that I should apologize to my Jewish readers and friends, for not investing an equal amount of excitement in Jewish festival days! I must admit that I know very little about the Jewish religion, except for what little we see through the lens of Protestant Christianity, from which the anti-Jewish hysteria (and there's a whole lot of that, I'm sad to report) has been carefully removed.
Honestly, Christmas is, to my mind, the only Christian festival worth celebrating. It stands for everything I believe in: eradication of poverty; generosity; shelter for the homeless; survival under a hostile regime, even if it is our own.
There are things to deplore, as well: principally the commercialism, and every sort of excess that businesses are eager to encourage. And this year, it is somewhat amusing that businesses are greatly frustrated at being unable to encourage the usual foolishness of the season. I am going to support the local soup kitchens as much as I can, though I'm living on savings right now. One hopes that they plan for the future, and spread their revenues over the whole year.
There are several stories in which Christmas figures prominently. (You need not read these if you're not so inclined!)
Christine's Amazing etc. Christmas
I must admit, every story whose timeline goes through December has some Christmas references, including Alexandra, in which I thought the Christmas chapter was particularly poignant. Jane features two Christmasses; Westfield has an attempted suicide shortly after Christmas, which was tasteless of me, but my stories that year were rather drama laden. I did not mention Christmas on the Voyager, though it was a particularly romantic one; the same goes for the holiday season in Helen and Lalitha. In On the Run, Helen is hugely pregnant at Christmas, and there's a lot of excitement for various reasons.
Kay
No comments:
Post a Comment