Interesting coincidence, here:
I just received a message. From myself.
Evidently, a year from now, I have (or at least someone has) discovered a glitch in the time/space continuum through which messages can be sent backwards in time.
Now, because I am a Star Trek fan, I understand very well the dangers of time travel. Go back in time, change a detail, suddenly your grandparents never met and there you are, or maybe there you aren’t. Guardian of Forever stuff. If you’re lucky, you bring a pair of whales back in time with you to re-populate the oceans and all is set right … but that’s pretty rare.
So it is with great trepidation that I relay the message I received from myself.
“You know what I miss about last Christmas?” it says, after getting the boilerplate “This message is intended only for entertainment purposes and should in no way be taken as an accurate view of the future” disclaimer out of the way.
“I miss not taking things for granted.
“During the pandemic last year, I chose to do all my Christmas shopping online, and it was all finished ten days before Thanksgiving — and it was all wrapped a whole week before Christmas. This year? Well, let’s just say: ’tis the afternoon before Christmas, and all through the mall parking lot, this line of cars ain’t moving, oh no it is not. Just like old times. Although I do still wear a mask in public spaces most of the time.
“Last year, I set up three ‘virtual open house’ events on Zoom between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Saw a whole lot of friends that I hadn’t seen in ages! Most of them, I’d clicked ‘like’ on one of their Facebook posts, but that was it; but we spent two or three hours re-connecting and catching up and just telling stupid jokes and giggling, just like old times. This year, I haven’t seen any of them. The holiday season moves so fast and is so full of stuff that it kinda rockets past and you don’t get much of a chance to spend a lot of quality time with people, and suddenly it’s Christmas Eve.
“This year, it’s been good to be able to do the Christmas Pageant in-person, mostly because my sister always puts on a clinic in ‘how to orchestrate a mob of children of all ages into a Pageant cast, in an effort that often resembles staging the Normandy invasion’ … but during last year’s Pageant-making, we got to see all the kids in costumes straight from the first Zoom rehearsal — and the final movie even had a blooper reel.
“This year, it’s true, we’ve been able to make music with live choir and instrumentalists again — Kevin and I are back to stressing out about getting all the Cantata and Christmas Eve notes and rhythms in place, and all the instrument parts written and distributed. Last year’s Zoom calls were fun, though — we got to hang out virtually with SUMC-music-alumni friends in DC and New Hampshire and Dorchester!, and lots of other places. I miss that.
“Yes, to say the least, last year’s holiday season was a mess. Our own inconveniences (and there were plenty — I had to consciously think about how to do so many things!) weren’t nearly on the level of all the people who fell ill, all the people we lost. So many people’s Christmas dinners were more somber.
“But here it is, Christmas Eve 2021, and, well, what have I learned?
“I’ve learned that it’s easier than I thought to fall back into taking things for granted.
“Must work on that. With any luck — with better luck — it won’t take another global pandemic, or some similar calamity, to help me work on that.”
Interesting future-gram.
So. Here are wishes for a Merry Christmas (where merriment is possible, since in plenty of places, it isn’t, currently) … an actively Merry Christmas.
-Rob Hammerton
[Editor’s Note: This was a ham-handed cautionary tale. No hams were harmed in the making of this story. And I don’t presume to know what my eighth-grade English teacher would have thought of it. But I think I’m through with taking stuff for granted, whenever all this is over. May the message that I really do send back in time to myself, next Christmas, be a little bit different.]
Sudbury UMC Lenten Devotions 