For many people, Christmas is not a joyous season, but one marked by anxiety, sadness, and disappointment. “Depression occurs so often during the holidays because people’s expectations aren’t met,” says Joyce Hamilton Berry, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in Washington, D.C. Dr. Berry suggests that it is because of how Christmas has be sold to us: “Most people expect a Currier and Ives Christmas; they look at commercials on television and see family settings where everybody is so happy and the festivities are opulent. If they don’t have that, then something must be wrong, they reason.” The disappointment and depression is all the more painful because it feels so seasonally inappropriate. But is it?

Most of you probably have read the old English tale of Beowolf for either an English class or your own sense of enjoyment. But for those of you who haven’t, there is good news: the movie has finally arrived for your viewing pleasure. Is it good? Does it entertain? Is it scary? Is it faithful to the story? Here we go; yes, yes, kinda, yes and no.

There is a power in the simplest everyday actions that can change an attitude, an outlook, even a life. Many of you have traveled to far off places and seen the horrors and the sadness present in so much of the world. Some of you have even written articles about your experiences and how they changed you. Mission trips can open our eyes to the needs of others and to the ways many people live, often with very little and in extreme conditions. It breaks our hearts and drives us to change the world, for a little while. Often, however, when we come back we return to our complacency and our habitual apathy and numbness strip us of the passions that were stirred.

Before you read anymore, allow these next several sentences to soak well into your skull. As an athlete myself, I am a huge fan of all sports. I enjoy fast paced, intense competition. I love rivalries and grudges, passion and commitment. I love all of the blood, sweat and tears that go into every aspect of all sports. I am also a proud supporter of university sport and applaud all athletes who are able to compete at the varsity level. With that being said, let it be known that what you are about to read is solely in response to a single person’s opinion.

Titans not worthy

Dear Mars’ Hill,

As the heirs of modernity, we look at the capitalistic culture that we are immersed in and see a society that has plucked the fruits of nature and turned her into mere mechanized means of production. Nature has become the raw material upon which “civilization” is built. In his book, A Short History of Progress, Ronald Wright examines our own cultural outlook towards nature and compares it to the ancient civilizations of the past. He gives us a chilling outlook of how a society’s relationship to nature has often led to its downfall.

I was a young impressionable college freshman when I jumped onto the social justice bandwagon because I thought Jesus had plenty to say about how to structure our world to make things more just. Changing the social order is an integral part of bringing God’s kingdom on Earth. Or so I thought.

[Photos: Austin Jean]