Imagine a world where every person was supported in developing their skills to the fullest potential. But in this world, people don't have to compete for a few choice jobs, opportunities, etc. For every person, a perfectly suited life is available. A fulfilling job that uses their skills can afford them a home that perfectly provides their needs for shelter, space, and style. They'll earn enough to afford all the necessities and a good deal of comforts.
In this world, social relationships are most important. Society is built to encourage interaction and division is a thing of the past. People are different, but differences aren't a source of contention, nor even of passive separation, but truly integrated and celebrated.
Power is not abused. People necessarily need to have coordinators and conductors, "leaders" in a sense, but only in so far as function without an ounce of personal pride or cowtowing from those being coordinated. These "leaders" will fully understand that they are the servants of and dependent on those under them.
Likewise in such a culture of respect, no one would be looked down on for the position they occupy, nor despise doing work that is "beneath them" because there is no hierarchy. Concepts like 'beneath', would be purely and literally locational.
Science has advanced to the point that people most fully understand the integration of the world. And where they don't, they know enough to stop manipulating things in damaging ways. Health of humans extends to animals, plants, and the world as a whole. People understand that every action affects the whole system and the system affects every action. Because of this, sickness is a thing of the past. Pollution is no more. Mental illness is eradicated.
Because of the emotional and physical health of people, when things start to break down, it does not become a train wreck, cascade failure, but is absorbed in the understanding embrace of society and the world. Truly healing and restoring such that even crime disappeared.
Sounds great right? Regardless of what you believe, I bet you were reading this thinking how it fits your ideal world. But I got this directly from Jesus. This is what he taught. If you didn't recognize that, I invite you to look at the Bible (particularly the first five books of the New Testament) with open eyes this Christmas and see if I'm not right.
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Friday, December 22, 2017
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Christmas Wish
I have one wish for Christmas. Stop celebrating it please! Every year the US fires up this billion dollar industry that spans 3 or 4 months. There are tons of traditions and ideas and novelties. There are countless TV specials all talking about wishes and meanings.
But you know what, it's a really simple holiday. It's really of no significance at all to anyone who isn't a Christian. But for Christians, like me, this is one of the two most important memorials of the year. But it isn't about snow, or lights, or gifts, or sharing, or a warm community feeling, or a dog finding his way home or some old man reuniting with his son. And it definitely has nothing to do with stupid cheap cups. It's a memorial of what we believe to be a pivotal moment in history. The event where THE GOD takes on human flesh. But if you don't beleive this, it's just the birth of some ancient guy, so why do you need to make such a fuss over it?
If you want to celebrate a mid-winter holiday, go right ahead! Just stop trying to coopt my Holy Day. What would you think if someone decided to have a barbecued pig for Ramadan? Or a kegger for Passover? Or ate all the food on the butsudan at Obon and covered it with cheap plastic balls? So why is it ok to trash this Christian holiday?
The answer probably has to do with so-called Christians themselves. Many don't understand the day either. Or have grown up in the midst of all the other crap so they actually associate all that with Christmas. Many I know may include some Bible reading or church service as the obligatory tradition, and then go right on with any other cultural event of the season. But they'll be hot to make sure you leave Christ in there!
Once again, I'm not knocking those events in themselves. I'm just saying that isn't Christmas! So just stop calling it that. Keep Santa Claus and snowflakes and trees and presents. Just don't keep Christ with that mess! Better to drop it altogether. If you did, I might actually be able to find some of it fun. But as it is, it's a season of painful disrespect of the single most important part of my life.
Leave Christmas for those of us who hold this to be a serious part of our lives to keep as we should.
But you know what, it's a really simple holiday. It's really of no significance at all to anyone who isn't a Christian. But for Christians, like me, this is one of the two most important memorials of the year. But it isn't about snow, or lights, or gifts, or sharing, or a warm community feeling, or a dog finding his way home or some old man reuniting with his son. And it definitely has nothing to do with stupid cheap cups. It's a memorial of what we believe to be a pivotal moment in history. The event where THE GOD takes on human flesh. But if you don't beleive this, it's just the birth of some ancient guy, so why do you need to make such a fuss over it?
If you want to celebrate a mid-winter holiday, go right ahead! Just stop trying to coopt my Holy Day. What would you think if someone decided to have a barbecued pig for Ramadan? Or a kegger for Passover? Or ate all the food on the butsudan at Obon and covered it with cheap plastic balls? So why is it ok to trash this Christian holiday?
The answer probably has to do with so-called Christians themselves. Many don't understand the day either. Or have grown up in the midst of all the other crap so they actually associate all that with Christmas. Many I know may include some Bible reading or church service as the obligatory tradition, and then go right on with any other cultural event of the season. But they'll be hot to make sure you leave Christ in there!
Once again, I'm not knocking those events in themselves. I'm just saying that isn't Christmas! So just stop calling it that. Keep Santa Claus and snowflakes and trees and presents. Just don't keep Christ with that mess! Better to drop it altogether. If you did, I might actually be able to find some of it fun. But as it is, it's a season of painful disrespect of the single most important part of my life.
Leave Christmas for those of us who hold this to be a serious part of our lives to keep as we should.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Assimilation
This blog is about Truth. With a capital T because I mean it in the big sense, not the baser sense of "true story" or true/false. Science is also about Truth...at least it is at the heart, before media and corpocracy and fame have tainted it. The only reason science and religion conflict is because practitioners of one or both confuse the roll of each. See science can only tell us about observable reproducable things. As such, it can't talk at all about things that fall outside of the ability to observe and test. Conversely, religion isn't about empirical, observable, testable reality. Reality, yes, but not the physical world in the way science is interested. Anyway, I digress. My point is that I try to understand my world as a whole. And science informs things quite well. So it shouldn't be a surprise that this blog may also cover scientific matters from time to time as they engage in my brain.
So the concept of assimilation. This is the process of taking something in and making it a part of the entity, whether that is biological, social, spiritual, etc. Essentially, an assimilated thing ceases to be separate from the thing that assimilates it. We assimilate nutrients. Nations assimilate people. The US is known as the "melting pot", which refers to the quality of assimilating people from many backgrounds. We are not a nation based on genetic isolation or ancient tribal divides. Assimilation is a natural process that absolutely pervades every aspect of the function of the world. But I don't think many people understand it at all.
I was thinking of assimilation around the Christmas season for a couple reasons. First, because people get wound up about the various elements of the holiday. Regardless of what angle of that argument you might sit in, I think the concept of assimilation should help unwind that tension some.
No culture exists in a vacuum. Even the oldest cultures are influenced by those around them and evolve through time. The culture of a tribe 1000 years ago would not be the same now, even if that tribe were totally untouched by the outside, which none are. So there are going to be things that move from one to the other in both directions.
When Christianity first began to spread, it was spreading through existing cultures. Some of those celebrated Saturnalia, some celebrated Yule, and many other winter festivities. So when a few people began to see that this new faith had Truth, they didn't cease to live in the culture they were in. Others around them still celebrated the things they always did. Christianity, being a very assimilative type of faith, does not proscribe or prohibit much outright. The Apostle Paul (Saint Paul, depending on your tradition) who wrote most of the New Testament says all things are permissible, but not everything is beneficial. The individual has to determine what is good for themselves and their own. So many found what was good and true in the culture they occupied and kept those elements.
Where there were conflicts of conscience, people sometimes adapted the holiday to something that fit their new beliefs. Ok, so we aren't celebrating Thor any more, but as all powers and principalities are subject to the One God, then Father Christmas must also be subject to him...It's not a conscious happening, it's a slow and imperceptible shifting. Father Christmas, sounds much like the traditions of Saint Nicholas from southern Europe, so those gradually get merged as well.
Now if you are seriously conflicted by any pagan elements in your holiday, by all means, do what your conscience demands. Paul also says to bear with those who have weaker faith, so I for one won't be in your face about what gives you trouble, just like I won't drink alcohol around an alcoholic or a Baptist. But for your part, recognize the freedom of those of us who do not feel conflicted about it. We're not apostate because we let our kids enjoy a gift given in the name of a mythical character or a Saint. WE aren't worshipping a pagan God when we do it, despite the origin.
And if you're on the other side where you feel your holiday was stolen and perverted by us tyrannical Christians, please remember that you are still free to celebrate whatever you like. As I described above, most of the assimilation was a natural cultural process and not a decision to abolish or persecute your religion. I don't doubt that there were times where a state religion prohibited practices in an attempt to mandate what it felt was good. But that's not what's happening in the West right now. In fact, in today's world, you're more likely to live in a nation that mandates against Christianity, if it speaks to national religion at all. So it goes both ways. Individuals are not nations and nations are not individuals. Celebrate what you like in the way you like and allow others the same respect, even if you disagree. This is the definition of political and religious freedom.
Now on to the second topic of assimilation. Food. When you eat, your body assimilates the chemicals in that food: proteins, lipids, nutrients, synthetics, etc. Those things become a part of your body. Your body knows how to use a lot of those things. A good deal of them, your body can't use. Some of them actively break down the processes in your body as it tries to figure out what to do with them. But since assimilation is a great principle of life on Earth, a natural law, your body has an amazing capacity to take damage. It will assimilate and assimilate until it is overloaded. Even useful things can become a problem when there are too many of them.
Unfortunately, our bodies are so good at assimilating stuff we often don't take notice. The impacts, are virtually undetectable. But they are occurring. We only notice it once it's so far damaged that something actually breaks. It's the same process all over the natural world. I'm a water scientist and I see people seep junk into lakes and rivers for decades and then get utterly bewildered when the lake turns green and icky "all of a sudden". Truthfully, there are usually warning signs if you know what to look for, but people don't pay attention to them in their body or the world around them.
Even the government is not good at watching this. You see, most of the government employees want to do good, that's why we choose a lower paying career that comes with ample abuse from ignorant people. But a good deal of the job is about keeping the wheels turning. In the US especially, it's hard to just say, "whoa, change everything because this isn't working." So we operate by determining exactly how much we can mess something up before the impacts are too noticeable. I'm dead serious about this. It's how the laws are written and how the policies are structured. It's not a mindset of keeping things healthy, solvent, or sustainable. It's how much abuse can we take from all the pressures and not fall apart.
The same goes with individual health. Many people try to sneak just under the line where they crash rather than aim for the healthiest they can be. Fortunately for someone with a condition like me, my body reacts far more instantly to a bad element than most. So people say it's a problem with my body and those things don't affect them. But they DO affect you. They affect everyone. I'm like the canary in the coal mine. My reaction is the magnified and instant representation of what it's doing to you over the decades.
So why play with fire? If you, unlike me, have a good margin of safety, you won't fall out from a little bad stuff, but it's still bad! Imagine how healthy you could be if you didn't keep taking in that stuff that's pulling you apart at the cellular level.
Anyway, these have been my thoughts through this Christmas season as I've watched and listened to the world around me. As we start into a new year, I'd encourage you to take advantage of this marker in time to begin consciously assimilating these ideas about assimilation. Once you understand the concept, it explains so much of the world around you. You'll be more insightful, happier, and healthier for it.
So the concept of assimilation. This is the process of taking something in and making it a part of the entity, whether that is biological, social, spiritual, etc. Essentially, an assimilated thing ceases to be separate from the thing that assimilates it. We assimilate nutrients. Nations assimilate people. The US is known as the "melting pot", which refers to the quality of assimilating people from many backgrounds. We are not a nation based on genetic isolation or ancient tribal divides. Assimilation is a natural process that absolutely pervades every aspect of the function of the world. But I don't think many people understand it at all.
I was thinking of assimilation around the Christmas season for a couple reasons. First, because people get wound up about the various elements of the holiday. Regardless of what angle of that argument you might sit in, I think the concept of assimilation should help unwind that tension some.
No culture exists in a vacuum. Even the oldest cultures are influenced by those around them and evolve through time. The culture of a tribe 1000 years ago would not be the same now, even if that tribe were totally untouched by the outside, which none are. So there are going to be things that move from one to the other in both directions.
When Christianity first began to spread, it was spreading through existing cultures. Some of those celebrated Saturnalia, some celebrated Yule, and many other winter festivities. So when a few people began to see that this new faith had Truth, they didn't cease to live in the culture they were in. Others around them still celebrated the things they always did. Christianity, being a very assimilative type of faith, does not proscribe or prohibit much outright. The Apostle Paul (Saint Paul, depending on your tradition) who wrote most of the New Testament says all things are permissible, but not everything is beneficial. The individual has to determine what is good for themselves and their own. So many found what was good and true in the culture they occupied and kept those elements.
Where there were conflicts of conscience, people sometimes adapted the holiday to something that fit their new beliefs. Ok, so we aren't celebrating Thor any more, but as all powers and principalities are subject to the One God, then Father Christmas must also be subject to him...It's not a conscious happening, it's a slow and imperceptible shifting. Father Christmas, sounds much like the traditions of Saint Nicholas from southern Europe, so those gradually get merged as well.
Now if you are seriously conflicted by any pagan elements in your holiday, by all means, do what your conscience demands. Paul also says to bear with those who have weaker faith, so I for one won't be in your face about what gives you trouble, just like I won't drink alcohol around an alcoholic or a Baptist. But for your part, recognize the freedom of those of us who do not feel conflicted about it. We're not apostate because we let our kids enjoy a gift given in the name of a mythical character or a Saint. WE aren't worshipping a pagan God when we do it, despite the origin.
And if you're on the other side where you feel your holiday was stolen and perverted by us tyrannical Christians, please remember that you are still free to celebrate whatever you like. As I described above, most of the assimilation was a natural cultural process and not a decision to abolish or persecute your religion. I don't doubt that there were times where a state religion prohibited practices in an attempt to mandate what it felt was good. But that's not what's happening in the West right now. In fact, in today's world, you're more likely to live in a nation that mandates against Christianity, if it speaks to national religion at all. So it goes both ways. Individuals are not nations and nations are not individuals. Celebrate what you like in the way you like and allow others the same respect, even if you disagree. This is the definition of political and religious freedom.
Now on to the second topic of assimilation. Food. When you eat, your body assimilates the chemicals in that food: proteins, lipids, nutrients, synthetics, etc. Those things become a part of your body. Your body knows how to use a lot of those things. A good deal of them, your body can't use. Some of them actively break down the processes in your body as it tries to figure out what to do with them. But since assimilation is a great principle of life on Earth, a natural law, your body has an amazing capacity to take damage. It will assimilate and assimilate until it is overloaded. Even useful things can become a problem when there are too many of them.
Unfortunately, our bodies are so good at assimilating stuff we often don't take notice. The impacts, are virtually undetectable. But they are occurring. We only notice it once it's so far damaged that something actually breaks. It's the same process all over the natural world. I'm a water scientist and I see people seep junk into lakes and rivers for decades and then get utterly bewildered when the lake turns green and icky "all of a sudden". Truthfully, there are usually warning signs if you know what to look for, but people don't pay attention to them in their body or the world around them.
Even the government is not good at watching this. You see, most of the government employees want to do good, that's why we choose a lower paying career that comes with ample abuse from ignorant people. But a good deal of the job is about keeping the wheels turning. In the US especially, it's hard to just say, "whoa, change everything because this isn't working." So we operate by determining exactly how much we can mess something up before the impacts are too noticeable. I'm dead serious about this. It's how the laws are written and how the policies are structured. It's not a mindset of keeping things healthy, solvent, or sustainable. It's how much abuse can we take from all the pressures and not fall apart.
The same goes with individual health. Many people try to sneak just under the line where they crash rather than aim for the healthiest they can be. Fortunately for someone with a condition like me, my body reacts far more instantly to a bad element than most. So people say it's a problem with my body and those things don't affect them. But they DO affect you. They affect everyone. I'm like the canary in the coal mine. My reaction is the magnified and instant representation of what it's doing to you over the decades.
So why play with fire? If you, unlike me, have a good margin of safety, you won't fall out from a little bad stuff, but it's still bad! Imagine how healthy you could be if you didn't keep taking in that stuff that's pulling you apart at the cellular level.
Anyway, these have been my thoughts through this Christmas season as I've watched and listened to the world around me. As we start into a new year, I'd encourage you to take advantage of this marker in time to begin consciously assimilating these ideas about assimilation. Once you understand the concept, it explains so much of the world around you. You'll be more insightful, happier, and healthier for it.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Charlie
Here we are at holiday season again in the U.S. It starts with Thanksgiving. Which is a day to give thanks for all that we have through the year. It is based in our earliest history as a nation. Really, one of the founding events for Americans as a people...the merging of Native American and European cultures.
But in reality, it has become nothing more than a day to party. Just like every other popular holiday here. And American party means noise, alcohol, and a general excuse to act rude and slightly debauched in the name of "good cheer". People have already started buying enough food to feed a developing village for a week. Some are having dinners tonight. Tomorrow the real feasting will occur. Some people going to 3 or 4 feasts.
Then Friday following has become a day to consume yet even more as people flock to stores and fight to buy all the bait and switch deals. I have never been to a store on "Black Friday" but I did go to one on Sunday after, last year. Things were literally thrown around like a riot had occurred. This is "celebrating".
And I'll have to go to some obligatory feast of my own (I'll only do one)...deciding which family group will feel most slighted if I don't go. I'll see people I don't know and don't have anything in common with, other than some tenuous genetic connections. I'll smile and be cordial and make polite excuses for not eating foods I can't eat and probably get sick from eating some things just to shut people up.
Christmas specials have already started in stores, on TV, everywhere telling me what I am supposed to do and feel and most having no concept of what the holiday really is...or rather no concept of what that means...I'm sure most actually know what it is about.
So now starts my least favorite time of year. I wish I could just not participate at all. The favorite holiday season of my life was the one I spent in Japan where most didn't know about my holidays and fewer cared. I was able to keep them in my own way, sharing peaceful and enjoyable time with my family and a few friends we shared our traditions with. But unfortunately, here that is impossible.
I'll try not to be obviously negative so as not to ruin it for others...but maybe it's worth ruining. Am I doing those I care for a disservice by not expressing what is hollow and wrong?
I have made certain stands, but they are to little avail against the tide of prescribed consumption and obligatory "cheer".
So if you see me through this season, give me a little nod that you understand. I know I'm not alone. And if you disagree, that's fine. You keep it your way and leave me to keep it mine. You've got the whole culture with you. The least you could do is give me a little space to salvage what good I can scrounge out of it without judgement or pressure.
But in reality, it has become nothing more than a day to party. Just like every other popular holiday here. And American party means noise, alcohol, and a general excuse to act rude and slightly debauched in the name of "good cheer". People have already started buying enough food to feed a developing village for a week. Some are having dinners tonight. Tomorrow the real feasting will occur. Some people going to 3 or 4 feasts.
Then Friday following has become a day to consume yet even more as people flock to stores and fight to buy all the bait and switch deals. I have never been to a store on "Black Friday" but I did go to one on Sunday after, last year. Things were literally thrown around like a riot had occurred. This is "celebrating".
And I'll have to go to some obligatory feast of my own (I'll only do one)...deciding which family group will feel most slighted if I don't go. I'll see people I don't know and don't have anything in common with, other than some tenuous genetic connections. I'll smile and be cordial and make polite excuses for not eating foods I can't eat and probably get sick from eating some things just to shut people up.
Christmas specials have already started in stores, on TV, everywhere telling me what I am supposed to do and feel and most having no concept of what the holiday really is...or rather no concept of what that means...I'm sure most actually know what it is about.
So now starts my least favorite time of year. I wish I could just not participate at all. The favorite holiday season of my life was the one I spent in Japan where most didn't know about my holidays and fewer cared. I was able to keep them in my own way, sharing peaceful and enjoyable time with my family and a few friends we shared our traditions with. But unfortunately, here that is impossible.
I'll try not to be obviously negative so as not to ruin it for others...but maybe it's worth ruining. Am I doing those I care for a disservice by not expressing what is hollow and wrong?
I have made certain stands, but they are to little avail against the tide of prescribed consumption and obligatory "cheer".
So if you see me through this season, give me a little nod that you understand. I know I'm not alone. And if you disagree, that's fine. You keep it your way and leave me to keep it mine. You've got the whole culture with you. The least you could do is give me a little space to salvage what good I can scrounge out of it without judgement or pressure.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Un"traditional"
Christmas is always a very reflective time for me. I despise the hokey cheer and even more the consumerism packaged as love and friendship. To me this is not Christmas. It might be for some people, but I wish they would just call it something else and leave my holy day to me and those who want to keep it.
This is why I don't get bent about people saying Merry Christmas or celebrating other holidays, even the made up ones. Great. If you don't believe what I believe then stop getting in the way.
I don't understand how...no I do understand. I was going to say I don't get how things get passed off as part of Christmas that have nothing to do with it, but I get that and don't want to belabour it.
Instead I want to focus on what it means to me. I don't pretend that this is some historically accurate date, or even that it wasn't placed on this date that coincided with other cultural holidays. That doesn't change what I celebrate.
I think of a young tradesman, struggling with the stigma of a used wife, the scandal of someone else's baby. The young woman thought to be unfaithful. The oppressive politics of the day. The long trip. He couldn't leave her, legally because she was his wife and had to register too, ethically because she might have the baby any time, and morally because people were judging them. I think of the frustration at finding no place in such need.
I think of the innkeeper who found what space he could for them.
I think of the birth, alone. No midwife or doctor. Did they know what to do? Had someone prepped them before the trip, just in case? Even knowing who the child was, doesn't wipe out human fears and concerns. I've been in many cases where I knew God told me to be, but I had no idea how it was going to work out.
I think of the stable, how God would be born amongst livestock. He a sheep for slaughter, himself. I know the smells of livestock, and it can be a comforting smell of genuineness and peace...you don't understand until you've been around it for a while. I can imagine the animals there yielding their worship to him. Helping in their way. Of course I don't think they did anything anthropomorphic, but I have watched creation bend and serve God. How much more in this instance!
I think mostly of shepherds, living apart from the hustle of life and culture. The abiding goodness that tends to grow in people like this, even as their roughness and uneducation makes them seem backward and undesirable to many. It is a subculture of its own. I think of their excitement. I wonder who stayed behind with the sheep while the others ran to find the child. I think how they are the most unlikely herald: the least likely to be believed by the educated, yet the least likely of all to lie about it or spin it.
I think of times when God has broken through my reality and blazed in front of me. How much more in this setting!
I think of the gift that this was. For the limitless God, the moving creating breath of God Himself to shed it all and be confined to the most helpless state of a helpless creature. I think of what this means in the fabric of the universe. I think of what this means to my life.
I have had real living experience of this person, this God. And to know that this same person did these things for me is stilling, overwhelming, emotional.
It makes all the traditions of our culture meaningless at this time. I don't care for trees or decorations or feasts or treats or gifts or family time or warm memories. I want to slip off into the night and stare at the sky and let the moment of this event flood all over me. I can't truly help it anyway. It keeps flooding in even if I don't want it to.
So when you see me at this time of year you'll know why I'm quiet, why my eyes seem wetter than normal, why I keep slipping away to private places, staring out windows. This is my Christmas. And you're welcome to share it with me.
You can keep the rest of it. I have no use for it.
This is why I don't get bent about people saying Merry Christmas or celebrating other holidays, even the made up ones. Great. If you don't believe what I believe then stop getting in the way.
I don't understand how...no I do understand. I was going to say I don't get how things get passed off as part of Christmas that have nothing to do with it, but I get that and don't want to belabour it.
Instead I want to focus on what it means to me. I don't pretend that this is some historically accurate date, or even that it wasn't placed on this date that coincided with other cultural holidays. That doesn't change what I celebrate.
I think of a young tradesman, struggling with the stigma of a used wife, the scandal of someone else's baby. The young woman thought to be unfaithful. The oppressive politics of the day. The long trip. He couldn't leave her, legally because she was his wife and had to register too, ethically because she might have the baby any time, and morally because people were judging them. I think of the frustration at finding no place in such need.
I think of the innkeeper who found what space he could for them.
I think of the birth, alone. No midwife or doctor. Did they know what to do? Had someone prepped them before the trip, just in case? Even knowing who the child was, doesn't wipe out human fears and concerns. I've been in many cases where I knew God told me to be, but I had no idea how it was going to work out.
I think of the stable, how God would be born amongst livestock. He a sheep for slaughter, himself. I know the smells of livestock, and it can be a comforting smell of genuineness and peace...you don't understand until you've been around it for a while. I can imagine the animals there yielding their worship to him. Helping in their way. Of course I don't think they did anything anthropomorphic, but I have watched creation bend and serve God. How much more in this instance!
I think mostly of shepherds, living apart from the hustle of life and culture. The abiding goodness that tends to grow in people like this, even as their roughness and uneducation makes them seem backward and undesirable to many. It is a subculture of its own. I think of their excitement. I wonder who stayed behind with the sheep while the others ran to find the child. I think how they are the most unlikely herald: the least likely to be believed by the educated, yet the least likely of all to lie about it or spin it.
I think of times when God has broken through my reality and blazed in front of me. How much more in this setting!
I think of the gift that this was. For the limitless God, the moving creating breath of God Himself to shed it all and be confined to the most helpless state of a helpless creature. I think of what this means in the fabric of the universe. I think of what this means to my life.
I have had real living experience of this person, this God. And to know that this same person did these things for me is stilling, overwhelming, emotional.
It makes all the traditions of our culture meaningless at this time. I don't care for trees or decorations or feasts or treats or gifts or family time or warm memories. I want to slip off into the night and stare at the sky and let the moment of this event flood all over me. I can't truly help it anyway. It keeps flooding in even if I don't want it to.
So when you see me at this time of year you'll know why I'm quiet, why my eyes seem wetter than normal, why I keep slipping away to private places, staring out windows. This is my Christmas. And you're welcome to share it with me.
You can keep the rest of it. I have no use for it.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Christmas lost
I have bouts with humbuggery. It's not that I dislike Christmas. In fact it's precisely the opposite. I like it so much, feel its sacredness so much, that the rampant commercialism and overwrought "Christmasy" stuff is a mockery and cause for sadness to me. Even amongst family, the greater portion of whom have at least some faith, the secularized traditions and popular religious-esque traditions they doggedly associate with Christmas are so hollow, cheesy, or inappropriate to the day I can barely stand it.
It's not that they have a bad heart. They just buy into the supermarket commercial image of the holiday with all it's kitsch and forced nostalgia that is really just a clever marketing ploy. Some actually enjoy the whole gift exchange aspect...but I'm pretty sure I've blogged on that before.
The point is, some years I have been able to keep Christmas in my own heart by avoiding as much of that as possible. By finding time to slow down and step aside, stay out of the shopping places, and let the real import of the season affect me. But this year because of some changes in circumstance, I have been unable to do it. Many times this year, I've been thrust into that Christmas madness unwittingly. It has left me grumpy and short-tempered. Everything I do not want to be around Christmas.
You know what this tells me? When I am ill-tempered because I can't find the goodness in something, or otherwise off-kilter, it usually means I've done something wrong. Like Eve eating the apple and finding that the result she got wasn't what she had expected. It tells me that I have been duped. That I have allowed myself to be pulled off balance. Frustration at being had, makes me angry, and I don't even recognize why right away. Upon realizing it, I can almost hear the demons' cruel laughter.
So what to do? It may be too late for this year. I just have to be extra careful not to take the frustration at my mistakes out on those who aren't aware of the problem. In other words, I shouldn't ruin the holiday for those who are blind to the evils inherent in their practices. They aren't able to see it even if I point it out. I've tried in the past. The result is that I just look sour and angry.
I can also take steps to arrest it from spinning off any further. Today I refused to buy any more Christmas presents. It's done. I'm done. I have also been praying and asking for God to restore my peace. I've been trying to saturate myself with things that typically help me so as to regain my balance.
And then, there's the biggest decision. I don't do it lightly, which is why I haven't fully made up my mind. Perhaps it is the reason I was brought into this state, though...to bring me to the decision point. I am debating excusing myself from the entire rat race next year. I mean not accepting or buying a single present. No name exchange or dollar limit that no one pays attention to but me. No Christianity Today version of 'recapture the holiday and kiss Mother Culture's feet through mental gymnastics and homemade gifts'. If I get a present, I will return it or sell it and donate the money.
This is a big decision. Family will not understand it. It will create some hard feelings because it will act as a mirror for others' materialism. I'll be accused of playing the martyr, acting holier than thou. It will hurt some family members who are so bound in their materialism that they genuinely feel they are expressing love by foisting it on others. Not to mention someone will give me a great gift that I will not want to give up. It's not that I hate presents. I even believe it is a virtue to graciously receive. It's the obligation, the rat race around it that I hate and I see no other way to step out of it. I've tried, but people won't hear me. They force me to play their game.
Now of course I would buy or make a present for my son. I wouldn't force this decision upon him. But I would not hide my decision. Already we have given up the Christmas feast as a family in favor of an empty-bowls dinner...soup, bread, apple, water. To remind us of the humble nature of our King and identify with those for whom that meal would be a feast. Maybe it's time to take the next step and get out of this consumerist hell. I think it could be done delicately enough.
It's not that they have a bad heart. They just buy into the supermarket commercial image of the holiday with all it's kitsch and forced nostalgia that is really just a clever marketing ploy. Some actually enjoy the whole gift exchange aspect...but I'm pretty sure I've blogged on that before.
The point is, some years I have been able to keep Christmas in my own heart by avoiding as much of that as possible. By finding time to slow down and step aside, stay out of the shopping places, and let the real import of the season affect me. But this year because of some changes in circumstance, I have been unable to do it. Many times this year, I've been thrust into that Christmas madness unwittingly. It has left me grumpy and short-tempered. Everything I do not want to be around Christmas.
You know what this tells me? When I am ill-tempered because I can't find the goodness in something, or otherwise off-kilter, it usually means I've done something wrong. Like Eve eating the apple and finding that the result she got wasn't what she had expected. It tells me that I have been duped. That I have allowed myself to be pulled off balance. Frustration at being had, makes me angry, and I don't even recognize why right away. Upon realizing it, I can almost hear the demons' cruel laughter.
So what to do? It may be too late for this year. I just have to be extra careful not to take the frustration at my mistakes out on those who aren't aware of the problem. In other words, I shouldn't ruin the holiday for those who are blind to the evils inherent in their practices. They aren't able to see it even if I point it out. I've tried in the past. The result is that I just look sour and angry.
I can also take steps to arrest it from spinning off any further. Today I refused to buy any more Christmas presents. It's done. I'm done. I have also been praying and asking for God to restore my peace. I've been trying to saturate myself with things that typically help me so as to regain my balance.
And then, there's the biggest decision. I don't do it lightly, which is why I haven't fully made up my mind. Perhaps it is the reason I was brought into this state, though...to bring me to the decision point. I am debating excusing myself from the entire rat race next year. I mean not accepting or buying a single present. No name exchange or dollar limit that no one pays attention to but me. No Christianity Today version of 'recapture the holiday and kiss Mother Culture's feet through mental gymnastics and homemade gifts'. If I get a present, I will return it or sell it and donate the money.
This is a big decision. Family will not understand it. It will create some hard feelings because it will act as a mirror for others' materialism. I'll be accused of playing the martyr, acting holier than thou. It will hurt some family members who are so bound in their materialism that they genuinely feel they are expressing love by foisting it on others. Not to mention someone will give me a great gift that I will not want to give up. It's not that I hate presents. I even believe it is a virtue to graciously receive. It's the obligation, the rat race around it that I hate and I see no other way to step out of it. I've tried, but people won't hear me. They force me to play their game.
Now of course I would buy or make a present for my son. I wouldn't force this decision upon him. But I would not hide my decision. Already we have given up the Christmas feast as a family in favor of an empty-bowls dinner...soup, bread, apple, water. To remind us of the humble nature of our King and identify with those for whom that meal would be a feast. Maybe it's time to take the next step and get out of this consumerist hell. I think it could be done delicately enough.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Christmas
Many things have been happening lately. Too many to blog all at once. Christmas is a very powerful time for me, for obvious reasons. I'm very happy that the popular holiday is only one day long because it leaves the full length of the event free from commercialization and that makes it much more easily absorbed.
So, in my mind it is still Christmas, though I will quickly pull down the decorations and other trappings to make room for the full significance of the time to expand and fill it. I heard a song this year about a cowboy thinking through Christmas as he sat out on the high plains with his few companions. I know that may seem trite to some people, but you must remember that cowboys are one truly American icon and a huge part of our past and present. It wasn't a cheesy song in style, but very pensive and peaceful. The idea being none of the trappings that we associate with the holiday were present for this person and his friends. Therefore the full weight of the moment was overpoweringly present to them...much like the shepherds at the original event. There are many similarities to the lifestyle. If you've never taken time to exist in such a simple isolated manner, it is well worth it. That's why cowboys tend to be so philosophical and contemplative. I imagine shepherds must have been similar.
I would love to have a Christmas without gifts. Or perhaps only giving things that one already has. This would greatly change the character of the giving and make it a more personal thing. Sadly, this is pert near sacrilegious to most people, even Christians. I even have some family members that simply refuse to comply when everyone agrees to limit gifts. They don't do this to show off or embarrass anyone, but simply because the gifts and the holiday are so intertwined for them that they can't be separated. For these people, it is truly a joy to give and they truly expect nothing in return, all of which is greatly to their credit... I'm just illustrating the point.
I also took the time to read A Christmas Carol this year. It's a short book. I just never picked it up. I've seen the dozens of movies, but there's nothing like the source. Actually, the movies are extremely close to the source. It almost reads like a screenplay. I may have to read more Dickens. I've never been able to get into him. He's too close to that stodgy Victorian/Edwardian era that I couldn't stand it. If life was really like that, I'd run screaming mad. All artificial rules and hierarchies. Thankfully, Dickens was one of those who was trying to do away with that attitude. Maybe now I could actually get into it.
Anyway, I hope the few of you who actually read this are having a good Christmas and that you will let the full meaning and impact of the holiday settle upon you. Even if you don't believe it, try looking at it from the inside. There is no harm in seeing it from another's perspective. Just imagine what it would mean in the context that I see it:
A world that that was hopelessly lost with no chance of change or improvement on every level, despite monumental individual and cultural best attempts, all eventually succumbs to decay and corruption.
But one rural pastoral people, small in number and barely a blip on the cultural radar of the world, turns out to have the mythology that was chosen to be made true and the multi-dimensional being known as, "That Than Which Nothing Greater Can Be Conceived", the Yahweh, the Wakantanka, the Brahman, the Logos, the Ideal, voluntarily and permanently sheds dimension after dimension of his nature in the Great Dive, down, down, to assimilate himself into this lost world and all its individuals, every dimension of it, and in so doing assimilate it into himself so that the lost world and each of its damned inhabitants become a new form of existence, new beings...the merger of the human and the divine, which had never been done in the universe and can never be undone or done again. This is the root of the Christian mythos and all the cliched jargon that surrounds it. This is what we celebrate at Christmas.
So, in my mind it is still Christmas, though I will quickly pull down the decorations and other trappings to make room for the full significance of the time to expand and fill it. I heard a song this year about a cowboy thinking through Christmas as he sat out on the high plains with his few companions. I know that may seem trite to some people, but you must remember that cowboys are one truly American icon and a huge part of our past and present. It wasn't a cheesy song in style, but very pensive and peaceful. The idea being none of the trappings that we associate with the holiday were present for this person and his friends. Therefore the full weight of the moment was overpoweringly present to them...much like the shepherds at the original event. There are many similarities to the lifestyle. If you've never taken time to exist in such a simple isolated manner, it is well worth it. That's why cowboys tend to be so philosophical and contemplative. I imagine shepherds must have been similar.
I would love to have a Christmas without gifts. Or perhaps only giving things that one already has. This would greatly change the character of the giving and make it a more personal thing. Sadly, this is pert near sacrilegious to most people, even Christians. I even have some family members that simply refuse to comply when everyone agrees to limit gifts. They don't do this to show off or embarrass anyone, but simply because the gifts and the holiday are so intertwined for them that they can't be separated. For these people, it is truly a joy to give and they truly expect nothing in return, all of which is greatly to their credit... I'm just illustrating the point.
I also took the time to read A Christmas Carol this year. It's a short book. I just never picked it up. I've seen the dozens of movies, but there's nothing like the source. Actually, the movies are extremely close to the source. It almost reads like a screenplay. I may have to read more Dickens. I've never been able to get into him. He's too close to that stodgy Victorian/Edwardian era that I couldn't stand it. If life was really like that, I'd run screaming mad. All artificial rules and hierarchies. Thankfully, Dickens was one of those who was trying to do away with that attitude. Maybe now I could actually get into it.
Anyway, I hope the few of you who actually read this are having a good Christmas and that you will let the full meaning and impact of the holiday settle upon you. Even if you don't believe it, try looking at it from the inside. There is no harm in seeing it from another's perspective. Just imagine what it would mean in the context that I see it:
A world that that was hopelessly lost with no chance of change or improvement on every level, despite monumental individual and cultural best attempts, all eventually succumbs to decay and corruption.
But one rural pastoral people, small in number and barely a blip on the cultural radar of the world, turns out to have the mythology that was chosen to be made true and the multi-dimensional being known as, "That Than Which Nothing Greater Can Be Conceived", the Yahweh, the Wakantanka, the Brahman, the Logos, the Ideal, voluntarily and permanently sheds dimension after dimension of his nature in the Great Dive, down, down, to assimilate himself into this lost world and all its individuals, every dimension of it, and in so doing assimilate it into himself so that the lost world and each of its damned inhabitants become a new form of existence, new beings...the merger of the human and the divine, which had never been done in the universe and can never be undone or done again. This is the root of the Christian mythos and all the cliched jargon that surrounds it. This is what we celebrate at Christmas.
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