I'm Doing This For Them

I was in the latter years of elementary school when, as the Christmas season approached, many Christmas-themed (black and white) movies hit the television airwaves.  Then, Christmas was a Christian holiday, and part of the celebration of Jesus’ birth included the singing of Christmas Carols.  Many a movie showed carolers joyfully going from one neighbor’s house to another, spreading the Christmas cheer.  It made you feel good.

And it got many young minds (such as mine) to thinking …

Perhaps we should spread cheer like that, too.  We know LOTS of Christmas carols.  We should go singing from door to door for the joy of our neighbors, and --- well, if they wished to thank us with a small donation at the end of our joyous singing, well, we’d cheerfully accept.  Yes, I think we’d like doing this good thing for them.

I don’t recall us ever practicing singing --- we knew the carols, didn’t we? --- but we did prepare some songbooks, so we’d look more like those carolers on television.  And one Saturday night, the four or five of us guys set out to bring Christmas cheer to our neighbors.

And the word of our actions quickly spread …

The next day, at Sunday mass, the priest began his homily by saying that he had received some phone calls, that local children were going door to door singing Christmas carols to extort money.  The people said the kids sang so bad that they gladly paid them to leave.  And I felt he looked right at me as he said: “Please don’t do that anymore.”  And I felt like a plum turning into a prune, as I shrunk in my seat.

I’m sure my friends and I had convinced ourselves that we were doing the caroling (mostly) for our neighbors.  We hid our selfish motives from ourselves, because we knew extorting money was wrong, and a sin, and we were (mostly) good Catholic boys.

As I look around me at the world, I see now many adults today are acting as we did then.  They do so many things which they proudly proclaim are done “for them, for our neighbors,” while they can’t see the selfishness of their actions.  And, sadly, even if they could, they wouldn’t see them as sin.

So many things considered sin when I was young, are no longer considered sins.  There used to be a saying: “Love the sinner; hate the sin,” but now we have negated the second part by fusing it with the first: “That’s who I am (as defined by my actions).”  And we’ve defined who I am and what I want as good thing, because I KNOW that I am a good person.  There is no more sin in doing it, if I want to do it.

And we’ve lied to ourselves by justifying our actions by saying “I’m doing this for them.”  Whether our employer, our family, or our neighbor, our actions are “for them,” and if they choose to show their appreciation with money, with respect, with love, and/or not just tolerating but agreeing with our actions --- well, we’d humbly accept their thanks.  And, of course, there are some of us who even live our entire lives totally focused “on them”, and if they just happen to show their appreciation for our actions with votes, well, we’d gladly accept, but we only doing these things for them.

Yes, we think we are doing it for them, as we sing our own personal off-key notes, celebrating our selfish lives.

I just wish some “adults” in our country could grow up, and stop singing the same tune.  They think they’re singing for me, but I don’t like it.  And to help them stop, well, I’d gladly pay them to leave.