…is the title of my favorite new Christmas song – it was last year’s holiday track from the Killers. Their first, “A Great Big Sled,” was another solid hit; their second, “Don’t Shoot Me Santa” was…less so. But this one was oddly affecting.
Well your eyes just haven’t been the same, Joseph
Are you bad at dealing with the fame, Joseph?
There’s a pale moonshine above you
Do you see both sides, do they shove you around?
Is the touchstone forcing you to hide, Joseph?
Are the rumors eating you alive, Joseph?
When the holy night is upon you
Will you do what’s right? The position is yours…
Think about this. You’re just this guy, a carpenter, making a living for yourself in a Roman-occupied Judea where you’re probably lucky just to be hanging onto upper-working-class. Engaged to be married, good decent life ahead of you, and then – out of a clear blue sky – she’s pregnant. And it sure as hell wasn’t you, and you don’t want to make a fuss, but come on – what else are you going to do?
And then, the angel of the Lord shows up, and he’s got a message. Yes, she’s pregnant, and her baby’s daddy is God. You know – Jehovah. YHWH. “I AM THAT I AM.” Yeah. And you have to marry her, you have to have the baby, you have to raise the baby as your own, and to cap it all off – proof that the angel of the Lord went to Notre Dame – you can’t tell anybody why you’re doing it. You have to be the stepfather to the Son of God.
When they’ve driven you so far
That you think you’re gonna drop
Do you wish you were back there at the carpenter shop?
With the plane and the lathe
The work never drove you mad
You’re a maker, a creator
Not just somebody’s dad
We have no idea what happened to Joseph. We know he stepped up, married his fiancee, was there at the Temple after eight days, to all accounts brought up his son the best way he knew how. And then…nothing. No mention of him down the home stretch. Not a word about when, or how, he died. Just disappears – not really germane to the story anymore.
From the temple walls to the New York night
Our decisions rest on a child
When she took her stand
Did she hold your hand?
Will your faith stand still or run away?
I think that irrespective of your faith – or lack thereof – there’s a lesson here. There are things we have to do in this life that we probably don’t want to, things that drop out of the sky at the worst possible minute, and there’s no door number two, no plan B, just this thing that you have to deal with. Whether it’s a natural disaster taking your home out from under you, or a parent you never thought of losing suddenly gone, or a pink slip the second week of December, or a phone call from the police at 3 AM, or the doctor walking in and closing the door and sitting down – you just have to swallow hard, accept that this is your life, and face it as best you can.
Joseph is the patron saint of the local parish, and (obviously) of the nearest big city. If the lives of the saints are meant to be exemplars of how we live our lives, you could do worse – get on with it, do the best you can, and don’t be a horse’s ass about it.
Oh yeah, the song also features Elton John and Neil Tennant. You think that’s not an instant classic, well, you’re entitled to your wrong opinion. =)