Nonreligious quote for a holiday card when the world is terrible
October 9, 2020 5:28 PM   Subscribe

I'm hoping you can help me find a short, nice quote for our holiday card that acknowledges the horribleness of 2020 without being too hokey or depressing.

I normally use I Heard a Bird Sing by Oliver Herford

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.
"We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,”
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December

I like that it is secular, hopeful, sweet, and addresses the darkness of winter. I feel like it might be a little trite for this year. Any ideas?
posted by pintapicasso to Writing & Language (22 answers total) 51 users marked this as a favorite
 
Maybe the last stanza or last two lines of Thomas Hardy’s The Darkling Thrush. Hardy’s pretty measured in his hopefulness.
posted by FencingGal at 5:45 PM on October 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Albert Camus-"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was within me an invincible summer".
posted by effluvia at 5:48 PM on October 9, 2020 [24 favorites]


I dont think its trite. I really like it for 2020.
posted by Ftsqg at 6:22 PM on October 9, 2020 [20 favorites]


I have a feeling that's going on a lot of Mefi holiday cards this year! It's absolutely beautiful, and I don't think trite at all.
posted by MeadowlarkMaude at 6:33 PM on October 9, 2020 [7 favorites]


I also like your usual poem.

The Camus quote [Au milieu de l'hiver, j'apprenais enfin qu'il y avait en moi un été invincible, - Retour à Tipasa (1952) / "In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was within me an invincible summer," - Return to Tipasa] might be a little heavy for a holiday card.

What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That’s not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that’s the burden of the year.

-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox, The Year

Also Wilcox:

The old year may die, and a new one be born
That is bleaker and colder;
But it cannot dismay us; we dare it—we scorn,
For love makes us bolder.

-- from Bleak Weather

For how can one know color in perpetual green, and what good is warmth without cold to give it sweetness? -- John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America (1962)
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:42 PM on October 9, 2020 [13 favorites]


In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing.
About the dark times.
– Bertolt Brecht, The Svenborg Poems
posted by fancyoats at 6:48 PM on October 9, 2020 [29 favorites]


"I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains."

-Anne Frank
posted by WalkerWestridge at 7:28 PM on October 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


From Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer:

There’s Always Tomorrow For Dreams to Come True

Or depressingly from Dolly from Rudolph: I haven’t any dreams left to dream.
posted by Sassyfras at 7:29 PM on October 9, 2020


(I would strongly suggest not using an Anne Frank quote in a holiday greeting card)
posted by ChuraChura at 7:49 PM on October 9, 2020 [50 favorites]


To the New Year,” by WS Merwin. It is quietly hopeful.

...our hopes such as they are
invisible before us
untouched and still possible

posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:50 PM on October 9, 2020 [6 favorites]


Since 2016 I always go back to Mac McCaughan:

Happy new year,
at least Prince can't die again.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:14 PM on October 9, 2020 [3 favorites]


Seconding "To the New Year", which I found via a similar question I asked in 2016, suggested to me by hurdy gurdy girl!
posted by skycrashesdown at 8:33 PM on October 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


It's probably too earnest for your purposes, but I've been thinking about this passage a lot lately:

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

(from "September 1, 1939" by W.H. Auden)
posted by babelfish at 9:05 PM on October 9, 2020 [5 favorites]


I really think you should continue with what you have been, as others have suggested. It suits the moment, but more importantly, continuing on as you have been all this time with your usual hopeful holiday greetings is itself inspiring and hopeful.

We plan to keep to our holiday traditions (such as they are) as closely as possible this year because this year more than others, we need them to connect us, forward and back.
posted by notyou at 9:30 PM on October 9, 2020 [4 favorites]


Somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Your cards may not be enjoyed this year but they will be remembered..

Okay, kidding, unless you have a very specific sort of friends.
posted by Nerd of the North at 10:42 PM on October 9, 2020 [5 favorites]


It may be more political than what you’re looking for, but back in 2016 I used a line from Langston Hughes' Let America Be America Again, which has some hopeful, determined moments.
posted by kittydelsol at 4:56 AM on October 10, 2020


The original lyrics to “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” have been my Christmas motto since 2016. It’s even more apt this year.

Someday soon, we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.

posted by snowmentality at 8:37 AM on October 10, 2020 [17 favorites]


Consider carefully whether your target audience actually would prefer receiving a holiday card that "acknowledges the horribleness of 2020" - I would not. People already know this is an unusual year and may or may not want to be reminded of that with an extra melancholy holiday card.

Your poem is lovely and already has an element of acknowledging darkness.
posted by randomnity at 8:45 AM on October 10, 2020 [2 favorites]


I think the point of much holiday ritual is moving focus away from the outside world and to the parts of ourselves that are constant and good, and to the constancy of our connections to other people. So, I'd choose words that bring up the beauty and feeling of friendship and love.

That beauty and that connection is what strengthens us so that we can face the rest of the world and so that we can do what we need to do to make the world better.

I just searched for [friendship as a source of strength] and came up with this quote:
A faithful friend is a source of strength.
Here are some more friendship quotes:
I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light. (Helen Keller)

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. (Albert Schweitzer)

The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship. (William Blake)

“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together… there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart… I'll always be with you.”
(Winnie the Pooh)


Come to think of it, I think I'd love to receive a card with a beautiful picture, and then a hand-written quote that you'd selected just for me.

Love,
amtho
posted by amtho at 10:01 AM on October 10, 2020 [1 favorite]


Thanks but I must note that last quote is Disney Pooh, from '97, not true Pooh. (source)
posted by Rash at 10:15 AM on October 10, 2020 [1 favorite]


The world is doing better than ever by some metrics.
posted by tarvuz at 7:09 AM on October 11, 2020


I always go for Gandalf for this mood, "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." But I'm not sure I'd put it on a card.

I like your usual poem.

(The end of House at Pooh Corner is actually devastating:

"“Pooh,” said Christopher Robin earnestly, “if I-if I'm not quite” he stopped and tried again-”. Pooh, whatever happens, you will understand, won't you?”

“Understand what?”

“Oh, nothing.” He laughed and jumped to his feet. “Come on!”

“Where?” said Pooh. “Anywhere,” said Christopher Robin.

So they went off together. But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.")
posted by missrachael at 10:04 AM on October 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


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