Comments on: Advent: The Loan

By: Julia

Julia — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:00:13 +0000

I have so many conflicting emotions this year, so much loss and hope and mental and physical pain, all tied up with women wearing pants and finding out that maybe being a rebellious young wife who organized farm worker health care and spent that Christmas giving wood to people who couldn’t keep warm. I see little pieces of my life swirling in these stories, and each seems like a puzzle piece, in a 5,000 piece puzzle, that my heart leaps as I find the place that *this* one fits in my eternal self.

I have no idea if that makes any sense to anyone but me, but with a very few exceptions, the stories of holidays meaning more and bringing more than physical presents, and instead emphasizing spiritual presence, have been a wonderful gift to me.

By: Carol

Carol — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:08:38 +0000

I don’t know, any story with fruitcake could be pretty tragic.

Some of these stories really ring true, like they come from personal experience. Those are the most comforting.

Thank you for them all. I like reading them.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:59:25 +0000

I type them up without reading them first — all the fiction, not just the Christmas ones — and only tag something “Advent” after discovering the story as it unfolds, same as you.

I suspect that whether or not the authors themselves have suffered a loss, or are lonely, or whatever, they choose themes of loss because such stories intrinsically are emotional or pathetic or poignant. It’s probably more difficult to write an interesting Christmas story where everything is fruitcake and star shine and carols and goes exactly according to fairy tale. Just guessin’.

My personal taste runs more to characters making other characters’ dreams come true, rather than stories of bereaved people learning to live again. But I can only post what I find!

By: Carol

Carol — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:46:38 +0000

I hear so much that Christmas is a depressing time for so many people because all our sorrows and losses are highlighted during the time of traditions and family and happiness. So many of these stories deal with that very issue. Ardis, are you picking out the stories that are like this? Or are they typical for church magazines, or for certain decades? I don’t watch TV so I don’t know what the Christmas specials are like now, but what I remember is mostly either someone poor got what they wanted or a little nobody hedgehog or something saved Christmas. I love it that, in these, Christmas is shown as a time for love and comfort, the message of Christ.