While driving home from mass this past Saturday, something hit me like what Luke Combs might liken to a Hurricane. Christ has been kicked out of Christmas and country music has been kicked out of country radio. In each we are dealing with the same societal phenomenon.
Whether the force is consumerism or the general devolution of societal norms to the lowest common denominator, we can see two separate items besieged by the same trend. The trend takes that which is good and focuses on defacing it until only one small almost indistinguishable characteristic that originally existed remains. In Christmas it’s some form of giving and in country music it’s some reference to rural life. Their true form has been disfigured a thousand times over.
If one is to care for the present and the future, one must care about the past. What is now and what is to be tomorrow will soon be the past. If the present is what is of primary importance, then nothing but the greatest dollar or greatest thrill matters. That’s exactly what has happened to country music and Christmas. The desire to reach the lowest common denominator has been sought to make things most marketable and most palatable for what is called the masses.
In a song by a current country artist, Riley Green, he sings, “It’s who I am, it’s to give a damn about the ones that came before me..”. This reference to the past should resonate with any listener, especially when thinking about the current state of Christmas or country music. Both are in part a tradition and both have been handed down to you and I. Does their form have any real meaning or do we navel gaze as we ponder the thought that we can’t truly define either item? What is Christmas? What is country music? Are they both a feather in the wind? Are you and I a feather in the wind?
We live in a time of marketing and consumption that would astound any person from a prior generation. Concurrently, we live in a time where information is available in such a way that was unimaginable 30 years ago. Neither one of these aspects of life provide the structure or guidance for maintaining or developing anything of value. Whether it’s Christmas, country music or a anything else of value in your life, the lowest common denominator cannot be your guiding light to purpose, meaning or success.
Anyone can understand when a prepared dish is stripped down and loses its form it loses its appeal to the one who is to eat the dish. The same holds true for kicking Christ out of Christmas and country music out of country radio. They both turn into an unrecognizable blob that no one, except for the most autopilot beings know what to do with.