A Jester in the King's Court

The White Elephant Gift Exchange (WEGE on the street…i.e. “Let’s get wege tonight!”) has become a holiday tradition. If you are unfamiliar with this custom, it goes as follows:

1) Find something that you do not want anymore
2) Wrap it up
3) Go to Christmas party
4) Put your gift with the others under the tree with disproportionately nice ornamentation when juxtaposed to the “treasures” now laying underneath it
5) Draw numbers for the pecking order of junk taking.
6) Steal the nicest piece of junk…or the 1 nice gift because someone didn’t understand the rules
7) Go home with new junk

Now, I had the pleasure of trying to explain this to a person who is originally from a not-so-western country. The conversation was an interesting one. He asked me the amount of money that we should spend on the exchange, and I said, “No, its not like that…just bring something you might not want anymore, or a gag gift or something”….my friend seemed confused and asked, “So…I bring trash?”. I said, “No…not trash…just something you don’t want anymore”. This concept seemed hard for him to grasp…but he finally thought he got it and brought a Bible from the 1800’s…I tried…oh well….

I realized though…how odd is the concept of “Just bring something you have that you don’t want” to people from the second of third world? Could the WEGE be a more American/Western concept? Can you imagine a missionary in Zimbabwe explaining what the WEGE is to the Zimbabweans? “Just bring something you have that you don’t want” “Um…I don’t have anything….well, aside from AIDs and lice…can I bring those?” “Um…how bout we just skip the WEGE and just go see an actual elephant”

I personally love the WEGE, I think its hilarious, an I wish I was Jewish so I could have 8 crazy nights of WEGE….but I think we should at least stop for a moment and realize what it says about what we are blessed with to have such a surplus of things that we can view some of them as junk that’s good for a laugh…whereas so many people across the world don’t have water, food or shelter…3 of the 4 most important things to survival. The 1st of which is clearly air….and the top 5 being rounded out of course, by a good po-po-po-po-po-poker face.

Topic: Christmas Movies and Essences

Philosophy is funsies. In what other discipline can you use the sentence, “I’m sorry, but your ontological presuppositions leave you in a state where you are forced to affirm an epistemological infinite regress.”? I mean sure you use it every day if you work at Gymboree, but beyond that….

Anyway, another side effect of studying philosophy is that you end up applying the terms, principles and debates to everyday life. This is fun when you are talking with fellow philosophy nerds, but rather a bore at most parties. Then again, at most parties it just fun listening to the inebriated people repeat the word “monophysite” back to you after you use it to describe their inherent use of the phrase “Gimmie one more…” whilst at the bar.

Case in point for today’s seasonal discussion, what makes a movie a Christmas movie, as opposed to a movie that takes place at Christmas? This question started brewing in my head last year when someone said that “Love Actually” was their favorite Christmas movie. I reacted with a bit of disdain for that statement because, let’s be serious…as likeable as Hugh Grant is when singing Good King Wenslease, that does not a Christmas movie make.

In the philosophical world, there is a debate surrounding essence, and what makes a thing what it is. Classicalists tend to think that there is an intrinsic essence to all things that define them as what they are, Nominalists think that essences are projections of universals on the unifying elements of nature, existentialists think that essences are completely defined by the existing cogniscent individual defining reality and purpose as they see fit, and the consperiscists that believe the world is run by an illuminate, Obama was born in Kenya and that we never landed on the moon. This last group is not related to philosophy I anyway whatsoever, but are always good for a cheap laugh.

So, what makes a movie a Christmas movie? Is it something innate, or is it self-defined? Granted there are the hyperspiritual people that will say the only true Christmas movie is the Nativity because is about Jesus. Ok, true….as a Christian I am required to say that (seriously, its in our bylaws), but now that we are done with that, seriously, what defines Christmas movies?

When I watch Elf, or the Santa Clause trilogy (it’s the Back to the Future of Christmas) or Christmas Vacation, I classify them as Christmas movies without a second thought. However when I look at Gremlins or Love Actually and in some cases Home Alone, I don’t necessarily think “Christmas movie” I think, “Movie in which Christmas plays an accidental or secondary role” which translates from nerd to English as, “Movie that takes place during Christmas”

I think the reasoning is that Christmas is central to the plot of the former movies, and the changes in the characters are by products of “The magic of Christmas”, whereas the other movies could take place at another time of the year, or not mention Christmas at all, and I wouldn’t notice a real change to the movie at all. Granted, I can conceive of the Christmas Carol being the Easter Carol, or the only poplar in France, Bastille Carol, and yet I think there is something utterly Christmas-centric about the story. Is it that a person in the story needs to undergo some type of transformation in the movie? I’m not sure….what do you think is the essence of Christmas cinema?