Solstice 2008

Leaving the cookies out

© Bryan Zepp Jamieson
12/20/08

In Iceland, they believe in elves.

Well, that’s harmless enough. Most societies have legends and folklore regarding “the little people,” Jungian myths writ small. When you think of Jungian legends in the überconsciousness, you think of Thor and Jehovah, Prometheus and Lucifer, angels and dragons, vampires and giants. Variants on those figures exist nearly everywhere.

What makes Iceland stand out is that the belief is pretty literal, enough so that their twenty-first century technology bends to the belief. When they consider building a new road, or a subdivision or a canal, they don’t just consider the impact on the environment and local economies and quality-of-life issues, and propose mitigations, but they consider the impact such things might have on the elves. The government has a guy whose job is it to pore over the plans, go out to the site, have a walkabout, and come back and tell the government if, in his opinion, the elves would like it or not. There’s one case where a two-lane highway abruptly narrows to one lane, an inconvenience and potential hazard even in a place where traffic is light, as it is in Iceland. It’s done that way because the government determined the elves wouldn’t like a two lane highway along that particular stretch. It didn’t pass the EIS: the Elvin Impact Study.

Icelanders treat their elves with a mixture of respect and awe, and that’s because they believe in the sorts of elves that most societies have in their folklore, which are creatures that are often stronger, faster, and smarter than humans, quicker to anger, and capable of deeper musing. Humans writ large, in other words. Some have magic powers, and some are right bastards. Only in America are elves demoted to choirboys in faux Robin Hood outfits. Here, only Santa Claus keeps some of the traditional elfin power, and even then, he’s given a merry nature and all encompassing love, a Democratic Jehovah. The darker Santa of middle-ages European lore rewarded good children with candy and pieces of fruit, and actively punished bad children, killing their families and sending them to hell. The Republican Jehovah.

Americans stoutly declare that they don’t believe in elves. But reading the news articles about the incoming administration, it’s pretty safe to assume that they think they’ve elected one president.

It isn’t the ears. Barack Obama might look like Prince Charles in a tailwind, but for all of that, they’re the wrong shape. Not pointy enough.

What pushes the public view of Obama beyond his just being a man and being, perhaps, a magical and powerful being is the extraordinarily high expectations everyone has of his incoming administration. And while Obama inspires confidence and doubtlessly wants to do so, the exaltation and hype go far beyond anything the man can actually do once in office.

A lot of it is the economy, of course. If people are willing to elect Elves, it’s because they’ve lost all faith in Gnomes, who turned out to be incompetent at everything except stealing. At stealing they excelled, and people are mostly in shock that so many of yesterday’s Elves, the Republicans, turned out to be Gnomes. It’s been a few years since the supposedly Elfin Newt Gingrich swore to destroy corruption in Congress and the White House.

I noticed the Obama effect on the local economy on a personal level. In September, when the economy first tanked, my business dropped about 50% from levels that had already been on the lowish side. By early November, I was wondering if I would still be in business come spring.

The day after the election, despite the facts that the world economy was just looking worse and worse, and the local economy was beginning to really feel the effects of $4 gasoline, business abruptly picked up, and if not glorious, has at least been at better levels than this time last year. Given that there’s no economic reason for it – we’re still awaiting the snow needed for our winter tourist economy – I have to conclude that just the fact that Obama was elected has caused people to relax a little and come out of their caves.

The country is also feeling an intense sense of relief. Americans can still control their elections. The next president isn’t an imbecile whose role is mouthpiece for the corporations. The fear that the GOP
would succeed in its goal of turning the country into a one-party dictatorship has abated.

So there is a certain amount of almost hysterical relief.

FDR waited until his Inauguration Day, in March of 1993, to give his famous “Nothing to fear but fear itself” speech. Obama hasn’t waited, and is already setting up a vast series of programs to attack the economic meltdown and restore, as they say, “full faith and credit.” Right now, America needs lots of faith and wiser credit.

America also needs hope. And Barack Obama understands that and is giving the country the hope needed to move forward.

America is approaching the longest night, both literally and figuratively. Winter Solstice is here, and spring lies a way off. But the length of the darkness in each day will be a little shorter, a little less cruel.

In the summer of 1933, not much had changed, and everything had changed. One third of the country was still hungry, business was still at a standstill, poverty stalked the land.

But people had hope. Nothing but hope. And that was all it took to get the country inching forward. The fiscal depression had several more years to run, but the emotional depression had ended.

We need to wait a month past the Solstice for a new President, and longer than that for the country to begin to heal from the depredations of the GOP. The damage of the Bush years has been immense, and will take much work to undo. But now, people understand that it will be undone.
The length of the nights will become shorter, the days a little warmer. Snow will begin to melt, and people will think about getting the mower blade sharpened.

And some will put cookies out for the elves, because you just never know. Elves bring, if nothing else, hope.

The sun will come back.
Happy Solstice.
Don’t lose hope. Never lose hope.