I pulled the previous post (after St. Andrew, and before this one). If you didn't read it, it was a rail against Christmas with a lot of content intended to torque up religious fundamentalists. After some discussion with people whose opinions I value, however, I decided that the post didn't really convey what I wanted to convey in a way that made sense. It had a hodgepodge of stuff that, in retrospect, just didn't work. So I am officially admitting my failure on that one. One idea per post... I should know that by now.
Frankly, it's pretty easy to dig up quotes from the Bible that are contradictory, and although some of them are very weird - even when taken in historical context, something that is important when reading old texts like the Bible - I clearly got off on a tangent. So using my mighty administrative powers, I'm giving myself a mulligan on that one. The internet never forgets, and I'm sure someone can probably dig it up if they're really interested.
Moving on...
Christmas is coming soon and we are once again surrounded by the output of the vast marketing engine that is "the Christmas Season". Personally, I saw the engine sputter to life in October, before Hallowe'en. I consider that to be a travesty.
It is a travesty not, as some might think, because I am an atheist and thus don't believe in gods or Jesus and so on.
It is a travesty because it flouts the words and teaching of the very person the day is supposed to be celebrating. In fact, I would say that it goes well beyond flouting and well into the realm of "is diametrically opposed to".
Our culture has turned, in the last 75 years or so, what was a quiet, minor holiday celebrated with close friends and loved ones into a hedonistic festival of greed, where greedy merchants wield guilt to compel us to spend money we don't have on gifts that we give, often only because we're expected to give gifts; and of false sincerity where we pretend to be nice to each other for at best a few weeks in the "spirit of the holiday". Like drones, people march into stores racking up debt and reducing savings to satisfy the insatiable merchant appetite.
Merchants will go on, as they often do, about how weak Christmas sales will hurt them. "Dig deep," they'll say, and spend! Spend! SPEND! But isn't it the mark of a poor businessman whose livelihood is threatened if he can't compel people to spend in one short season as opposed to the rest of the year? Businesses should be embarrassed if Christmas makes or breaks their year.
Here's some better ideas:
1. Is it really so difficult to be nice to each other for the rest of the year? Do we really require Christmas to put on our best face? Don't we owe it to each other to have that best face showing all (or at least most) of the time? There's not even a religious overtone required for this, although it would certainly appear that Jesus thought so.
2. Gifts should be given from the heart, not because a merchant tells you its time to buy a gift. Rather than blow your wad on Christmas, wouldn't your gifts mean a whole lot more if you gave them whenever the mood struck you. You're out one day and see something and think "Gee, Deb would like that", then why not give the gift right then? Waiting for Christmas (or birthdays, for that matter) kind of takes away from the whole gift giving experience that is sincerely giving a gift because you genuinely feel it is the thing to do.
3. Let's give Christmas back to the Christians... make it the way it was 150 years ago. Personally, I think we'll all be better off for it, whether or not you're a Christian. Imagine a world where there was no marketing blitz after the end of October. No Sears Christmas Wish Book to make your kids beg for stuff they absolutely NEEEEEEEEED even though they didn't know it existed the week before the catalog came. No being guilted into buying presents. No awkward moments meeting a person, to whom you gave a gift and who gave you one, in the store while you both exchange said gifts. Just family, friends, and maybe a nice meal on one day.
The original message of Christmas is a good one, whether or not you are religious. Peace and goodwill... Wouldn't it be nice to go back to that, rather than the current message of "spend yourself into destitution to give gifts to people because merchants tell you that you have to."
P.S. A personal bugbear of mine relates to people who get insulted when they see/hear "Merry Christmas". When someone wishes you a "Merry Christmas", they mean it as a wish of peace and good will. Even if you don't believe in their god, you'd have to be an ass to take it any other way. "Season's Greetings" is a cop-out. So is "Happy Holidays". Like it or not, it's Christmas... not some generic no-name holiday. I say "Merry Christmas" and I don't believe in god. Somehow, I've survived.
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