Ah, Christmas: house full of friends and family you haven't seen in six months (or three years in my uncle's case), living room buried under mounds of boxes and strewn wrapping paper, plenty of food, plenty of alcohol, surprisingly little bickering, although I don't believe we were cooped up long enough for that.
Anyway, after dinner we congregated in the family room around the "large" 47'' LCD flatscreen (my lobbying for a larger television has thus far proven futile). The CD/DVD player had been playing Louis Armstrong and Elvis Presley all night, but some enterprising cousins quickly reconfigured it with
Life of Brian, much to the delight of the rest of us--much of the family is composed of ardent Monty Python fans.
We quoted punchlines with raunchy abandon, laughed at Pontius Pilate and Biggus Dickus, and all sang along at the end: "Always look on the bright side of life-hwu hwu, hwu hwu hwu hwu hwu hwu", such great advice. Chuckling, I ventured into the kitchen to find one uncle (the three-year-away one) sitting thoughtfully by himself. "Don't like the movie?" I asked. He shook his head. "No, it just seems kinda disrespectful right now," he replied. I shrugged and made for the ice cream.
Only later did I pause to consider what he'd said. Disrespectful? Well, it was a Monty Python parody, wasn't it? I suppose exploring and exposing gaping leaps of faith in Christianity on the night of the birth of Jesus could be considered more than a little blasphemous, but on second thought very little in
Life of Brian makes fun of Christianity itself--it's more the followers of Brian, the hapless "Red Sea pedestrian" who, despite his best efforts, becomes a "prophet". John Cleese has a particularly insightful role as a ringleader of Brian's people when he says, "I say you are [the messiah], Lord, and I should know--I've followed a few." Besides, Jesus wasn't actually born on December 25, was he? As far as I've seen, the exact date of birth is in dispute, with figures ranging from November 17 to January 6 to May 20, and Roman Christians moved the date to assimilate the pagan's winter solstice. I'm personally not sure how disrespectful
Life of Brian is in regard to Christmas, but I can't help wondering if maybe X-mas (my independent, agnostic, and, no doubt, heretical label) is the right time for such a movie.
After the end credits rolled, I watched the group split into groups and enter into vigorous discussion on a range of topics, from health-care reform to the recession to cultural relativism vs. universalism. The families represented a wide spectrum of political, religious, and social perspectives, from conservative to liberal, Baptist to Agnostic. At the counter, my grandfather recounted to several eager listeners how he and my grandmother escaped North Korea during the Korean War, losing a brother to arrest (they never heard from him again) and hiding under bridges during American bombing raids. At a table, my mother and several others discussed the stock market, while several uncles reminisced about their grandmother's racist views and debated the role of race in current events. Nearby, a friend was explaining how Catholic Mass worked, having helped organize one the night before. I bounced from group to group, taking in new insights and interjecting my own thoughts whenever I felt the whim. And I thought:
this is the spirit of Christmas. Not commercialization, not globalization, not Nativity, but being together with family and friends, freely and respectfully discussing matters of interest on into the night. It gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling, the kind you get when you meet someone new whose thinking totally gels with yours, or when you perform a random act of kindness.
Not to say that
Life of Brian was responsible for any of this, but now I think it was somewhat in the spirit of things. Laughter and solemnity are very much in demand these days; laughter for when we struggle, solemnity to acknowledge the deeper moments in life. And so it was on the night of December 25. We enjoyed the comedy of Monty Python and then settled down for serious discussion. And if bringing together opposing viewpoints is blasphemy, I'll eat my X-mas tree.
Happiest of holidays, no matter what political affiliation or religious views you subscribe to!
For the record, I'm agnostic and not entirely in keeping with the last tenet of the Boy Scout Law: A Scout is reverent toward God. But I'll touch on the issue of religion in the BSA later.
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