A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fears
—John Lennon
This was a quiet Christmas, even when our daughter, Allison, who lives in Austin, came down to Canyon Lake—in mask. Her dog Stella and a friend’s dog Ollie along with our dog Bailey made three. They’re all little dogs so it was still quiet. We sat outside, six feet apart, so Ally could remove her mask, and had a Texas Christmas dinner—deviled eggs, brisket, choro bean soup, and Bread and Butter Pinot Noir. Ally’s husband Clint was stuck on an oil platform 300 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico, because the Covid-19 test results for his replacement were lost. This would have been his first Christmas home since he and Ally were married—years.
Those with loved ones in military service far from home had the same fate. We complained a little. What happened to Clint was not his fault; he didn’t volunteer to be gone at Christmas. Bless the families of soldiers, the families who wish their soldiers well, but don’t complain.
What is a war? We’ve heard the Covid pandemic compared to a war, and it is in ways. The first time I saw this sentiment of John Lennon’s was when I live in Los Angeles. It was December 15, 1969. I was driving down Sunset Blvd. and high on a pole was a huge billboard, black with white lettering:
WAR IS OVER
If you want it
Happy Christmas John & Yoko
And the lyric begins,
And so this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Perhaps it is true for many of you reading this, that songs and poetry reach you more than any other writing. Songs and poems are pointed. Like hypodermic needles, they inject their truths into us with speed and effectiveness, living in our veins, there to enter our thoughts when needed.
This campaign was worldwide. So, what prompted John Lennon’s song to come to me on Christmas day as Carol and I sat across from our daughter opening gifts. It was a soft guitar strumming the music to a song in my veins, one so long ago it needed to make its way back into my heart—War Is Over (If you want it). It was only a guitar, but I recalled the chorus of children synchronized in the background of Lennon’s original version, making it all the more effective—children singing these words, maybe not knowing how they mean exactly, their innocence shining through.
I have to ask myself 50 years later in the year 2020 with a new year a week away, what do these words mean? Recently, Senator Elizabeth Warren reminded us what we have done in 2020—we persisted. The wars our soldiers face are not over. The pandemic the world faces is not over. Homelessness and poverty will probably be increasing. Climate change is not over. But we persisted, because we wanted it.
When we persist in defiance of what would do us harm, the fear of it begins to lessen. We persist in negotiations with those who sow fear in the world. We wear masks against disease. We forego our traditional large gatherings for holidays. We cook at home. We order curbside. We insist on aid for the less fortunate. We recycle our waste. We drive less for vacations. What is really over is fear. What survives is hope.
Remember this last summer, when jellyfish swam in the cleared canals of Venice, and the Himalayas ascended unobstructed over India, and the haze of major cities lifted into blue skies? This is persistence. We had to do it through restriction, but we’ve become very aware that restriction and resistance are how we persisted. Everything that brought about these changes is possible all the time. There are variants that can be exercised in our everyday lives. And we must exercise those variants, persist through them.
And so this is Christmas
I hope you had fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fears
Photo by a.canvas.of.light, Creative Commons license via Flickr. Post by Richard Maxson.
Browse more Pandemic Journal entries
- Pandemic Journal: War is Over (If You Want It) - January 7, 2021
- Pandemic Journal: An Entry on How We Learn - April 23, 2020
- Adjustments Book Club: Homecomings - December 11, 2019
Bethany R. says
“When we persist in defiance of what would do us harm, the fear of it begins to lessen. […] What survives is hope.” Thank you for this.
Rick Maxson says
Thank you, Bethany.
Bethany says
Sure thing. Also, I never thought of seeing those lyrics on a billboard. Interesting how that would change the dynamic and impact.