THE modern incarnation of Christmas means something different for every Australian.
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Traditional observers of Christian faith thrive in a celebration of life, others just come together to share and shed the previous 12 months.
For some, Christmas can be tinged with sadness, a sorrowful reminder of those no longer with us.
A point all too obviously driven home by events of recent days and weeks, which have made us reconsider what so fashionably is dictated on social media as our ‘first-world problems’.
Our lives are full of whining about work, the late train or the high price of petrol. How about not getting a parking spot outside your favourite shop or when the line at the supermarket moves too slow?
Or the moment when your video takes too long to download because your new mobile phone can’t pick up the 4G signal.
Modern life is full of minor inconveniences that become ‘issues’ because now it can be written on a platform where even if your friends don’t want to listen to it, they can’t avoid reading it.
It’s easy to placate a whinge by a simple ‘retweet’ or ‘like’ to make a friend feel better, even if you don’t really give a stuff.
Balanced perspective on life is so much more difficult when all we seek is superficial recognition for superficial problems. It’s why major events are felt more visibly than in generations past.
It’s why the media gets tunnel vision too often when the world becomes engrossed in an event or issue that challenges us to think more deeply about our own lives, and our place in society.
There’s few people qualified, for instance, to have an opinion about this week’s siege in Sydney.
Yet everyone, myself included, did.
Opinions were then categorised. With or against. Racist, ignorant and nationalist or open, welcoming and equal. Grandstanding or sympathetic. Two people died. At the hands of a violent criminal with extreme views.
In Pakistan this week, more than 130 children were killed by the Taliban.
These are terrorists carrying out a most horrific crime where there is no debate or discussion about right and wrong, only armed zealots who decide who lives and who dies.
There is no champion of light in areas where the Taliban wishes to reign. There is no Christmas and no new year’s resolutions. Just families grieving and praying for a different life.
Putting the focus on the loss of life so close to the festive season is challenging. It is cause for contemplation for every person who has lost a loved one, whether through a tragedy, actions of others or just the attrition of life.
It proves the impossibility of measuring the impact of one person’s contribution over another because every life is special, and precious. From birth to death and every day in between.
andrew.eales@fairfaxmedia.com.au