Home and Holidays:

Straight AheadWe have just returned from a brief trip to Nashville for Thanksgiving. We wanted to be with my parents for the special day; but we also wanted to see for ourselves how my mother is doing. She has had some health problems recently and is recovering. I guess I've always been a little odd when it comes to home and holidays. People frequently talk about going "home" for the holidays. I know what they mean, of course. They mean they want to go back to where they grew up, back to where their parents are. I've always considered my home to be where I am currently living with my wife. When we lived in the Hampton/Newport News area of Virgikia, I especially felt as if that were my home. After all, we lived there nearly fourteen years. I realize that I'll probably never have the same sense of being "rooted" in an area again during my ministry. Still, it seems a little strange to refer to Nashville as "home." I like it very much. I would be very happy to live there again; but the fact is that I haven't really lived there since I graduated from high school in 1968! I love going back there; but my home is with Lydia; and I suspect that I will always think of "home" as wherever I happen to be living. I'm also a little funny about the holidays themselves. Being with family is good; but if I'm not with family on the exact days of Thanksgiving or Christmas, it doesn't bother me all that much. Of course, all things considered, I'd rather be with people than all alone on special days. I want to be with people I like. But I've spent Thanksgiving at seminary. I've spent many Christmases with Lydia--just the two of us--and we were perfectly happy. I knew I would be spending time with my parents later. (As my parents age, I realize such times will soon come to an end.) We enjoyed our visit to Nashville for Thanksgiving. Lydia fixed the dinner for us. We didn't have turkey. We had steaks, mashed potatoes, fresh salad, Lydia's traditional fruit salad, and pie. Even Lydia said that it was relaxing for her. At the moment, my mother seems to be improving; so that was encouraging. Of course, I had the football games on TV. (That's about as traditional as I get for Thanksgiving.) The weather was mild enough that I even went out on the front porch during the afternoon--my own tradition when I go to Nashville. I lived in that house during my teen-age years, 1962-1968. The house means a lot to me; but I know the time will soon come when that house will lie in ruins--torn down by some developer and replaced with a new mansion. Perhaps part of my attitude about home and holidays was shaped by the fact that so often as I was growing up, I never was "home" for the holidays--especially Christmas. My parents usually went to Atlanta or sometimes Memphis for Christmas. I enjoyed those trips; but my home was Nashville, and I was seldom there on Christmas. So as a teen-ager, I was very ambivalent about home and holidays, and all that kind of sentimentalizeing. Now that I'm a minister, I have a Christmas Eve service, making it very difficult to spend my Christmas anywhere but my home--I mean, the place where I actually live. As far as I'm concerned, however, that's fine. Besides, spring and summer are better times to travel, anyway--and we'll probably be with my parents for New Year's Eve!