Chapter 1: Episode 5
The Kims were on holiday break, exhaling from busy lives as professionals and parents.
James was in demand as a CNET TV personality and technology consultant. New products and innovations required his attention each day. Kati managed two San Francisco boutiques, a continual juggle of people, merchandise, and the physical plant. But these stores, so beloved by neighbors and tourists, were her rich reward. Adding to their responsibilities, the Kims had welcomed a new baby to the family seven months ago, and Kati was committed to nursing her.
The Kims, as we might guess, were grateful for the pause provided by Thanksgiving. But that pause began with bustle. First, they drove their Saab wagon up to Seattle to enjoy Thanksgiving with James’s aunt and uncle. Then they headed south to Portland to visit Kati’s friends, adding an excursion to explore Portland’s special shops.
Finally, they loaded the girls into the wagon and began driving down Interstate 5, toward Oregon’s famed forest hideaway, the TuTu’Tun Lodge. There they would finally have that holiday pause.
Their drive began Friday afternoon, November 26.
The Cadences of Culture
The Kims were following a map of rhythm, the cadences of culture – shared rhythms that shape the energy of work, school, and life.
Here’s something you kids and I can all agree on: our need for holidays and celebrations!
You’re experts, in fact, on celebration. Although I wasn’t there to witness, I heard about those campus-wide, end-of-term celebrations, with music, dancing, and more. (I’ll never forget when you explained the meaning of “darties” – parties that start in the daytime.)
College life especially relies on such cadences to sustain the souls of its students. Weeks of dreary winter weather, intense preparations for crucial tests, grueling writing of papers, and anxious days of exams demand a final celebration.
You can see that same cadence in our larger culture and the weeks leading up to Christmas. Four weeks of lists, errands, decorating, and entertaining build to a frenetic crescendo. But, then at sunset on Christmas Eve, there’s a clarion STOP to this busyness. Christmas has begun! For many, the climax of this holiday is the spreading of candlelight in a darkened church, with everyone’s singing, “Silent Night.”
Even the most secular and cynical want to experience the precious hours of Christmas just like this, lost in wonder, beauty, and joy.
Can you imagine a life without these cadences? Our days would just grind on without any texture or identity. But holidays wrap our lives with gilded frames of meaning. These frames hold time and proclaim, “Now – your work is over!” “Now – here’s extra-ordinary time!” “Now -- here is your very life, framed so you can feel and remember it.”
We create a chapter book of our lives through such cadences. Our lives gain shape and direction through these cultural rhythms. But to apprehend their meaning, we must pause to truly see. We must rest in the moment. As we sing on Christmas Eve, almost admonishing ourselves: “Sleep in Heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.”
The cadences of high holidays like Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas have their origins in religion, obviously. But does religion have anything to do with basic, bodily rest?
Yes.
(Continued January 14, Chapter 1: Episode 6)