I'll admit, once December 10 rolls around, I'm already suffering from major Christmas music fatigue, and this year, sadly, is no exception.
For fear of sounding downright grinch-y let me explain, I absolutely love Christmas music. But considering that every shop owner and radio station in town insists on playing it earlier and earlier every year, well, by this time, I've already heard "Santa Baby" and "Silver Bells" by every artist who's ever bothered recording it like 3,245 times. Just yesterday, I heard John Lennon's "Happy Christmas (The War is Over)" six times in the span of two hours. Good song or not, a girl can only take so much—especially with Yoko singing back-up.
But there is one line of one song that gets me every time, no matter how many times I've heard it. Even if the singer is butchering the vocals, something that happens routinely with "O Holy Night" considering the otherworldly key its in, hearing the "the thrill of hope/the weary world rejoices/for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn" always resonates with me.
And I think what makes it such a crowd-pleaser is because we're all in such desperate need of hope.
Just this week, a former music industry acquaintance of mine's fiancé was taken far too soon in a horrific car crash. Another colleague's beautiful wife and mother of two gorgeous baby boys, is having surgery on a brain tumor next week. I've had friends lose newborn babies and others lose their jobs and financial livelihood. I also know way too people who feel nothing but abandoned and alone during what's billed as "the most wonderful time of the year," and it just breaks your heart.
Even in the grander global scale, the sheer absence of hope is always reliably ripe for the reading on your favorite news website, whether it's what happened at Virginia Tech yesterday, a place that's already known such tragedy and loss, the abuse of countless innocent children or the widespread famine and war that never seems to go away.
The thrill of hope. Even when it feels so incredibly far away like it has this week, and even this year, just being reminded of it and the true Hope, does wonders for the soul—even if you're a bit of a grump about the same Christmas songs being played in a seemingly endless loop.
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