2008-12-25 17:47:02
Just a warning, there is a 90% chance that something in this rant will upset you. Read at your own risk.
If you haven't noticed, it's Christmas. Also, you're probably deaf and mute, or an Atheist, in which case you'll either know in about five seconds where I'm going with this, or you're probably not on this site.
Christmas, better know as Commercialism Central, is in full effect, allowing scores of children to wrap their paws around toys, gadgets, clothes and whatever else their parents credit cards were able to purchase before the square of plastic melted in the machine. None of this is essentially bad; the Pagans *ahem* originally intended this day to be one of parties, drinking and gift-giving when they created it, so in that effect it works quite well. It's just when people try to incorporate religion into it that things get dicey.
In fact, I wouldn't be talking about this at all, except I had quite the lovely conversation with my dear grandmother about how my mother was forgetting the true meaning of Christmas because she now skips the two-hour long explanation of the birth of Jesus Christ that had become tradition (and traditionally irritating) in my family. Now, I'm a recovering religious man, (in that I'm recovering from being in an established religion) but I don't think my grandmother has caught on and therefore expected me to take her side. Now, I refrained from correcting her and imploding her fragile religious mind by telling her Christmas was a holiday the Pagans invented quite some time before Jesus was even an issue or that all of history points to Jesus having been born sometime in the summer, but she serves as the perfect example of why I really dislike this holiday altogether.
To those religious folk who view the holiday as the defining day of their religion, this holiday is hypocritical in that, rather than celebrate the birth of their superstar, they spend the entire season running down old people to grab at "sales", then spend the entire day of with baited breath as they wait to find out if the hips of that old woman they plowed over was worth it to the child who, in a few weeks time, will surely pass up said item for something that will probably be even better. But I suppose that's a fairly pessimistic way of looking at things, so I'll simplify and just say "Holiday gift-giving ≠ Birth of your savior in a manger". Even if you want to quantify that the three wise men gave the baby Jesus gifts you'd still have to accept that these gifts were less practical and focused on things that came from the areas they resided in; no single old lady had to suffer just so someone could hand baby Jesus some myr.
Okay, okay, I'll backtrack here, because I can see scores of people teaming up with pitchforks claiming that the only reason I dislike the season is because I didn't get what I wanted, and I guess that's a valid argument except for the fact that I stopped asking for gifts years ago and I was still a devout Christian then. The reason I stopped asking for things is because I lost the urge for most material things and the things I do want tumble over into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but even when I taught the 3rd-6th graders during Sunday school I still shuddered whenever someone uttered the phrase: "He's the reason for the season," partially because if you're a Christian He's the reason for everything and because if you're not you probably know that He isn't; that was the doing of the Pagans. But either way Christmas + Religion = Fail.
But maybe I haven't felt the pull of Christmas this year because of the statistical 30% decline in consumer sales over this Holiday season or the fact that, instead of getting to go home this year I'm stuck in an empty dorm awaiting the whims of the two residents who decided to actually stay today. Or maybe it's my lack of religion, or the lack of acceptable gifts I've received in years past from family and friends trying their hardest to figure out what I could possibly want (hint: money). Whatever it is, I think I may just celebrate the holidays next week, when I'll have more money than I know what to do with and the freedom to actually spend it. Until then myself, and I'm sure thousands of homeless or poverty stricken, will treat today like any other day and continue on our merry, while the lot of you try to map out the best possible routes to malls across the city in your quest to return the horrid presents you had to meekly smile through while receiving, in the hopes that you can buy yourself that gift you were wanting and praying that next year you could just get a gift card.
Happy Holidays & Later
2008-12-25 17:46:25
Just a warning, there is a 90% chance that something in this rant will upset you. Read at your own risk.
If you haven't noticed, it's Christmas. Also, you're probably deaf and mute, or an Atheist, in which case you'll either know in about five seconds where I'm going with this, or you're probably not on this site.
Christmas, better know as Commercialism Central, is in full effect, allowing scores of children to wrap their paws around toys, gadgets, clothes and whatever else their parents credit cards were able to purchase before the square of plastic melted in the machine. None of this is essentially bad; the Pagans *ahem* originally intended this day to be one of parties, drinking and gift-giving when they created it, so in that effect it works quite well. It's just when people try to incorporate religion into it that things get dicey.
In fact, I wouldn't be talking about this at all, except I had quite the lovely conversation with my dear grandmother about how my mother was forgetting the true meaning of Christmas because she now skips the two-hour long explanation of the birth of Jesus Christ that had become tradition (and traditionally irritating) in my family. Now, I'm a recovering religious man, (in that I'm recovering from being in an established religion) but I don't think my grandmother has caught on and therefore expected me to take her side. Now, I refrained from correcting her and imploding her fragile religious mind by telling her Christmas was a holiday the Pagans invented quite some time before Jesus was even an issue or that all of history points to Jesus having been born sometime in the summer, but she serves as the perfect example of why I really dislike this holiday altogether.
To those religious folk who view the holiday as the defining day of their religion, this holiday is hypocritical in that, rather than celebrate the birth of their superstar, they spend the entire season running down old people to grab at "sales", then spend the entire day of with baited breath as they wait to find out if the hips of that old woman they plowed over was worth it to the child who, in a few weeks time, will surely pass up said item for something that will probably be even better. But I suppose that's a fairly pessimistic way of looking at things, so I'll simplify and just say "Holiday gift-giving ≠ Birth of your savior in a manger". Even if you want to quantify that the three wise men gave the baby Jesus gifts you'd still have to accept that these gifts were less practical and focused on things that came from the areas they resided in; no single old lady had to suffer just so someone could hand baby Jesus some myr.
Okay, okay, I'll backtrack here, because I can see scores of people teaming up with pitchforks claiming that the only reason I dislike the season is because I didn't get what I wanted, and I guess that's a valid argument except for the fact that I stopped asking for gifts years ago and I was still a devout Christian then. The reason I stopped asking for things is because I lost the urge for most material things and the things I do want tumble over into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but even when I taught the 3rd-6th graders during Sunday school I still shuddered whenever someone uttered the phrase: "He's the reason for the season," partially because if you're a Christian He's the reason for everything and because if you're not you probably know that He isn't; that was the doing of the Pagans. But either way Christmas + Religion = Fail.
But maybe I haven't felt the pull of Christmas this year because of the statistical 30% decline in consumer sales over this Holiday season or the fact that, instead of getting to go home this year I'm stuck in an empty dorm awaiting the whims of the two residents who decided to actually stay today. Or maybe it's my lack of religion, or the lack of acceptable gifts I've received in years past from family and friends trying their hardest to figure out what I could possibly want (hint: money). Whatever it is, I think I may just celebrate the holidays next week, when I'll have more money than I know what to do with and the freedom to actually spend it. Until then myself, and I'm sure thousands of homeless or poverty stricken, will treat today like any other day and continue on our merry, while the lot of you try to map out the best possible routes to malls across the city in your quest to return the horrid presents you had to meekly smile through while receiving, in the hopes that you can buy yourself that gift you were wanting and praying that next year you could just get a gift card.
Happy Holidays & Later
