{"id":10594,"date":"2020-12-24T23:26:06","date_gmt":"2020-12-25T06:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=10594"},"modified":"2020-12-24T23:26:06","modified_gmt":"2020-12-25T06:26:06","slug":"christmas-eve-music-video-i-believe-in-father-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/24\/christmas-eve-music-video-i-believe-in-father-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Eve Music Video: &#8220;I Believe In Father Christmas&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/2016\/12\/friday-evening-videos-bonus-edition-father-christmas\/\">posted<\/a> a version of this song &#8212; &#8220;I Believe in Father Christmas&#8221; by Greg Lake &#8212; four years ago to this day, but if anything I think it&#8217;s even more appropriate <em>this<\/em> year.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a melancholy song about the loss of innocence. But while the second verse may seem somewhat bitter about that loss, I don&#8217;t read the song overall as bitter or depressing. Not even cynical, really. Just&#8230; clear-eyed. And I actually find the final verse, with its earnest lyrics and swelling instrumentation, quite uplifting:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI wish you a hopeful Christmas,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>I wish you a brave new year\u2026<\/em><br \/>\n<em>All anguish, pain, and sadness<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Leave your heart and let your road be clear.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There have been so many deaths in the past nine months, so many things lost that we took for granted&#8230; in many respects, our entire way of life was snatched away from us in literally moments with no guarantee that is ever coming back, and we&#8217;re all still grieving for it. And there&#8217;s been a lot of turmoil coming from other sources as well. Our country, our world is filled with sorrow and fear right now&#8230; and a tremendous amount of anger too. Once those negative energies are unleashed, they don&#8217;t dissipate quickly or easily. I&#8217;m not so naive as to think that the turn of a calendar page or the inauguration of a new president is going to instantly undo the Lost Year of 2020. But just as this song ends on a grain of optimism, I do see a glimmer of better days ahead. At least, I hope that&#8217;s what the glow on the far-off horizon turns out to be. I <em>hope<\/em>. How strange that I, of all people, would be saying that.<\/p>\n<p>Merry Christmas to all those who observe it, and for anyone reading this who does not observe or who observes something else, I wish you peace. May we all find a brave new year and a road that is clear.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"725\" height=\"408\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yfY4b1NszpY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I posted a version of this song &#8212; &#8220;I Believe in Father Christmas&#8221; by Greg Lake &#8212; four years ago to this day, but if anything I think it&#8217;s even more appropriate this year. It&#8217;s a melancholy song about the loss of innocence. But while the second verse may seem somewhat bitter about that loss, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friday-evening-videos","category-music-and-pop-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}