As a songwriter, I know that you can't write a song that is appropriate for every situation, but the songs I hear this Christmas seem particularly out of place. I know that many people want to feel some sense of normalcy, or the way things always have been, but for me, things just aren't, and I don't think I can force them to be.
I've always had a love/hate relationship with this particular holiday. The put on "good cheer" and rampant commercialism have always seemed incongrous with what I imagine the meaning of the season to be. I resent seeing Christmas decorations up at Halloween. I think it's a sad state to wish your life away. I also fail to see how a 3 year old neice or nephew saying "I want this! I want this! I want this!" makes it "the most wonderful time of the year.
Last week Heather and I were having dinner at one of the three restaurants open in Bay St. Louis, and the intercom was playing "This Christmas will beeeee, a very Special Christmaaaas for meeeee..." and I thought to myself "indeed... This will be the first Christmas when I was homeless." A few days later we were driving to Slidell (LA, very close by) and hearing a very peppy version of "Winter Wonderland". Heather and I looked at the radio, and then at the piles of wreckage, debris, and downed trees lining the road. There was nothing we could do but laugh. The most wonderful time of the year indeed.
I've thought about penning my own new lyrics to Christmas songs, like (to the tune of the "Alleluia Chorus") "FEEEEEEMA Trailer, FEMA trailer, FEMA trailer, FEEEEEEMA Trailer, FE-MAAAAAA trailer, Weeeee Won't sleep on the cooooold hard groooound now! FEMA trailer, FEMA trailer, Alleluia! Alleluia!".
Or (to the tune of "Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas") "Have a brand new FEMA trailer, and a box of MREs, I'm sure you know that we'll have snow, along with gnats and fleas!"
There aren't really a lot of songs that express the proper holiday sentiments for what some of us are going through here. "May Santa bring you an insurance settlement", "Here's to locating your house!", "Rudolph, the elusive adjustor", or "Hope they find all of your loved ones' body parts" just don't roll off the tongue.
(For those of you unfamiliar with that story, Heather's Uncle Benny drowned in the storm. FEMA identified the body, and then called the family a month later saying "We found the body" which had been lost in the morgue, and could we send someone down to identify him. The unaccounted for corpse turned out NOT to be him, and on Halloween, FEMA came back to his house and removed his body, which had been sitting there since the storm. They asked "Was he missing an arm before the storm?," which he wasn't, but I guess that means he is now.)
There are some tunes that seem to express the proper sentiment though. "Christmas eve will find me, where the love light gleams, I'll be home for Christmas... if only in my dreams"
Aid from artists to artists
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As a musician, I can appreciate the sentiments of this writer! Let's see, how about "God rest ye Merry Gentlemen, where ever you may be! Remember that our government gives nothing out for free! Nor saves us all from nature's power when it has gone to sea. Oooohhh tidings of nothing for joy Etc.
Or Joy to the world, Katrina's gone! Let earth re cuperate! While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, repeat the sounding doooom, repeat the sounding doooom, repeat, repeat, the sounding doom.
Joy to the world, FEMA reigns.
And keeps the money safe!
While houses roahahaht
And bodies bloat
and politicians gloat
and politicians gloat,
and pol, and pol i ticians, gloat.
Helen A. Spalding, Bay View, Ohio (Sent Dec 6, 2005 3:39:55 PM)
A friend of mine came over with cds yesterday and insisted I'd feel better if I had them so I'm playing Christmas music this afternoon but not really listening, it's just something like "white noise". So glad that you wrote this in your diary, thought I was defective. I've never been too keen on this time of year and for the reasons you noted, I have my own way of celebrating the real meaning of Christmas. My Father told me one time that he really disliked the way the old Christmas music had become so hard to understand - I think I know what he means now. Maybe I'll turn off the computer, go sit in front of the CD player and I can make some rhyme or reason out of all of this suffering.
mary, pass christian (Sent Dec 6, 2005 4:48:10 PM)
I've been reading these daily blogs and each one gets sadder. I don't think anyone can imagine what Katrina survivors went through. there's a little hope but not much. Sometimes after reading these blogs I think - they should just bulldoze the whole area and just rebuild because from these readings the city and the gulf coast will never be the same again. Like the commercial says, "Don't mess with Mother Nature", and don't build weak levees.
Anon Female, Chicago, IL (Sent Dec 7, 2005 4:04:25 AM)
shoot...not to be cold or hard hearted....but LOL
andy,ms (Sent Dec 7, 2005 8:24:08 AM)
Christmas Cheer? I too am a survivor of Katrina, and the holiday mood hasn't come upon me. But I am thankful...I'm still here to write this and maybe my gift this year is to start anew...better. I relocated, and I read everyday what is happening in the Gulf Coast; and I cry everyday for all that we have lost. God bless you and keep you and yours safe!
Debbie, Seattle, WA (Sent Dec 8, 2005 12:29:23 AM)
Do any of you from the Bay/ Waveland area remember what the marquee in front of OLG said the week prior to Katrina? It read something like this, "In order to have anything, you must first lose everything." Hmmmm. Maybe this will help. "If ye have the faith as a grain of mustard seed, nothing shall be impossible to you." Matt 17:20 Coast folks are tough and true. It will be wonderful! Go do something for your neighbor today and see how cheery that will makes you inside. I promise it works!
Jane Anderson, Austin, TX (previously- Waveland) (Sent Dec 8, 2005 11:01:04 AM)
Steve and I did see the OLG message board on our way out of town the Sunday before the storm. I must admit it gave me pause, and a shiver. I try not to take general messages too personally, but that was certainly on target.
Heather Harper, Waveland, MS (Sent Dec 12, 2005 11:12:58 AM)
The message on the board in front of OLG read "It's only when you lose EVERYTHING, that you are truly free to do ANYTHING!" My mom and I have referred back to that many times throughout the past 3 months
Sarah, Bay Saint Louis (Sent Dec 14, 2005 8:36:33 AM)
The text at Our Lady of the Gulf church was "only when you lose everything can you do anything."
Our kids made up some songs too. From a Madness song:
Our house, in the middle of the street
Our house, flooded up to seven feet
Their house, sitting in our front yard
Their house, makes it very very hard
To clean up, our front yard.
and from Annie:
It's a mud-filled life for me
Now I have to go to therapy
And I have to chop down this tree
Cause it's lying on top of me....
Allison Anderson, Bay St. Louis, MS (Sent Dec 14, 2005 9:00:46 AM)
I think you have every right to feel the way you do and there isn't anything wrong with that. Your life isn't the way it was before and you don't have to put on a "show" or "pretend" to happy when you aren't. Maybe next Christmas you'll be in better circumstances but for right now, I think what yo feel is perfectly normal.
Traci Rogers, Cin, OH (Sent Dec 14, 2005 12:01:05 PM)
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