Living In Interesting Times

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Let your heart be light 

Next year all our troubles will be out of sight  

Have yourself a merry little Christmas 

Make the Yuletide gay 

Next year all our troubles will be miles away. 

I heard that song recently, but I don't believe it. I do not think that “next year all our troubles will be out of sight” or “miles away.” If the political prognosticators are correct, by the time the twelve days of Christmas are over, our troubles will be just beginning. This is the first time in my life that I feel like next year will be far worse than this year.  

Yet others disagree. The other day I was speaking with a young woman, who was grinning from ear to ear and gushing about the political appointments being made by the incoming president and what they promise for the future. She is having a “merry little Christmas.” 

There is an old curse that says, “May you live in interesting times.” Whether it is a blessing or a curse, we certainly live in interesting times!   It is the perceived danger of our times that makes them interesting. Taking risks pumps adrenaline and releases endorphins. That is the attraction of extreme sports. 

I am finishing up my seasonal reading of Auden’s “For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio.” The penultimate section of the poem is about the Holy Family fleeing to Egypt to escape the murderous King Herod. These are Mary and Joseph’s final words as they arrive in Egypt:  

Safe in Egypt we shall sigh 

For lost insecurity.  

Only when her terrors come 

Does our flesh feel quite at home.  

 

Something in us is attracted to risk.  When things feel too secure, we “sigh for lost insecurity.” Only when life has an element of insecurity “does our flesh feel quite at home.”  So we invite disaster. We yearn for it. I think that explains the 2024 election results. 

Even though we buy insurance and wear seat belts to guard against accidents, there is something in us that likes living without a safety net. Here in New Hampshire our state motto is “Live Free or Die.” We are the only state in the union that does not require adults to wear seat belts or carry auto insurance. Granite Staters like risk. 

All humans like a certain level of risk. We evolved as a species to survive in a dangerous world. Our bodies are designed for it. We expect it. We thrive on it. When there is no danger, we seek it out. We invent it. Hence the fascination of conspiracy theories. 

People in war weary countries, like Ukraine and Gaza, are sick of war and yearn for normality. They would give anything to live secure and “boring” lives. If I lived in one of those lands I would feel the same way. Most Americans living today do not remember real civil unrest or national economic distress.  

The American Civil War and the Great Depression are ancient history. Today many Americans think that danger comes in the form of vaccines, transgender people, 2½ percent inflation, and migrants crossing the border to pick our fruits and vegetables.  We do not know what real danger is. I suspect we will find out in 2025.  

Fantasy writer Terry Pratchett wrote: “The phrase ‘May you live in interesting times’ is the lowest in a trilogy of Chinese curses that continue ‘May you come to the attention of those in authority’ and finish with ‘May the gods give you everything you ask for.’ I have no idea about its authenticity.”  

I don’t know if these sayings are authentic either, although I suspect they are not Chinese. In any case, we live in interesting times. As we approach a new year, I am wishing more than ever that Americans had voted for boring times, inattention from those in authority, and unanswered prayers.