What to do with myself this morning. Yes, what to do. (Please, no need to feel free to tell me. No, comments from the peanut gallery.)
I need to clean my house. I need to make gifts. I need to pay bills. Yes, very busy. Where to start with such lovely chores to pick from.
I had a few very busy days...couldn't blog at all.
This week, at work, I was told that we could not sing all of the selected songs. The initial selection was raped and pillaged to include intelligent design and the likes. With the two Christians in tow on this, I was told that "they didn't want to push Christianity on anyone.....BUT...."
So, there was, the "but"...which just leads to the, either the unspoken or ever so carefully politically correct... "we're going to do it anyway." I could have fought about it. But, I just didn't want to. With die hard Christians, true to point, they will, in fact, miss the point. Blinded by their own misguided faith, not by the faith itself, but the twisting of it to meet their needs. I've read the book, too.
My hope this season, was for all of us at work, to be a little bit silly, yes, silly with eachother. Once you have been silly with another human, all things can become close. Tragedy and Silliness are the two emotions that can draw people together. They release the fear of embarrassment or self-protection. And since we've all had enough tragedy this year, I was opting for silliness.
I also was hoping to include everyone. There are non-Christians at work. Why should they not be included in the good cheer and good spirit?
I also, I had already made sure to include these Christians in the song list. There were spots allotted for their purely Christian songs. I had included them already. Now, we had to not include everyone else, for the most part. I was very sad and disappointed. My Holiday Spirit was a bit shaken for a few minutes.
Also, these two, just love to sing. Not that the new, revised song list was to make sure that they had a bit more of the spotlight at the party. Surely, not that. I had to wonder if there was a tiny bit of personal ego there. Which, again, is stupid to me, as the Spirit is not about personal spotlight and ego.
It was going to be ok if we were all off key, and a bit disheveled. It was going to be ok if we weren't a professional singing group. We were a bunch of people at an office, just singing for the hell of it.
Now, the talk of a pitch pipe and Jesus.
We are now down to only one silly song. One person admitted that we couldn't go gungho with naming Jesus outright, as there are laws that protect the non-Christians. Their onslaught only toned down by laws...not the being caring and sharing, which IS stated in the Bible...many times, but laws. Laws intendend to make sure people behave themselves around other people.
This is one of the reasons, I keep my faith to myself. I do not want to be the enforcer. Jesus was not an enforcer...he just walked around talking nicely and people chose to hang out with him.
I need to clean my house. I need to make gifts. I need to pay bills. Yes, very busy. Where to start with such lovely chores to pick from.
I had a few very busy days...couldn't blog at all.
This week, at work, I was told that we could not sing all of the selected songs. The initial selection was raped and pillaged to include intelligent design and the likes. With the two Christians in tow on this, I was told that "they didn't want to push Christianity on anyone.....BUT...."
So, there was, the "but"...which just leads to the, either the unspoken or ever so carefully politically correct... "we're going to do it anyway." I could have fought about it. But, I just didn't want to. With die hard Christians, true to point, they will, in fact, miss the point. Blinded by their own misguided faith, not by the faith itself, but the twisting of it to meet their needs. I've read the book, too.
My hope this season, was for all of us at work, to be a little bit silly, yes, silly with eachother. Once you have been silly with another human, all things can become close. Tragedy and Silliness are the two emotions that can draw people together. They release the fear of embarrassment or self-protection. And since we've all had enough tragedy this year, I was opting for silliness.
I also was hoping to include everyone. There are non-Christians at work. Why should they not be included in the good cheer and good spirit?
I also, I had already made sure to include these Christians in the song list. There were spots allotted for their purely Christian songs. I had included them already. Now, we had to not include everyone else, for the most part. I was very sad and disappointed. My Holiday Spirit was a bit shaken for a few minutes.
Also, these two, just love to sing. Not that the new, revised song list was to make sure that they had a bit more of the spotlight at the party. Surely, not that. I had to wonder if there was a tiny bit of personal ego there. Which, again, is stupid to me, as the Spirit is not about personal spotlight and ego.
It was going to be ok if we were all off key, and a bit disheveled. It was going to be ok if we weren't a professional singing group. We were a bunch of people at an office, just singing for the hell of it.
Now, the talk of a pitch pipe and Jesus.
We are now down to only one silly song. One person admitted that we couldn't go gungho with naming Jesus outright, as there are laws that protect the non-Christians. Their onslaught only toned down by laws...not the being caring and sharing, which IS stated in the Bible...many times, but laws. Laws intendend to make sure people behave themselves around other people.
This is one of the reasons, I keep my faith to myself. I do not want to be the enforcer. Jesus was not an enforcer...he just walked around talking nicely and people chose to hang out with him.
I don't need the statues in front of Governement building to remind me of the Spirit. I don't need people at stores saying the exact right code words, to remind me of the Spirit. I do not need to join a gang of churchgoers to make me behave myself. I don't even need the church building itself to remind me of the blade of grass that growning or the fact that I can take a breath...that are miracles...These things, every year, I don't need.
If more Christians did a little bit less of the forcing of their religious practices, then maybe more people would be apt to join in.
But, will I be there singing? Yes, I will don my red hat, and I will sing the verses that I want to sing, and I will politely listen to the ones that I don't want to sing. I'm not feeling completely defeated. Maybe these two really need this enforcement and justification for themselves. I can be compassionate enough to them to let them have this.
Some people, in other places strap bombs to themselves, to their bodies, for all different religions, and we still don't listen. As there are pictures of a bomb shredded foot still tied into it's running shoe, sans body, all that's left of that human, who will not be returning home or going to work, or standing in line, to buy that latte after all, still we do not learn. If that doesn't get us...then maybe nothing will.
We still will not set the example of caring and sharing. Is there nothing that can't be overcome by a little sharing and tolerance? How about sharing and minding your own business. What about that route? It's not just Jesus that spoke about that, lots of religions have that theme in common.
It's not the Spirit of the Holidays that gets me down...it's the hypocrisy that gets to me.
As there are people among us who feel that there is a giant war on taking Christ out of Christmas...and they have threatened to boycott stores that say Happy Holidays, instead of Merry Christmas...well good for you. GOOD FOR YOU!@#@!@!!!
If more Christians did a little bit less of the forcing of their religious practices, then maybe more people would be apt to join in.
But, will I be there singing? Yes, I will don my red hat, and I will sing the verses that I want to sing, and I will politely listen to the ones that I don't want to sing. I'm not feeling completely defeated. Maybe these two really need this enforcement and justification for themselves. I can be compassionate enough to them to let them have this.
Some people, in other places strap bombs to themselves, to their bodies, for all different religions, and we still don't listen. As there are pictures of a bomb shredded foot still tied into it's running shoe, sans body, all that's left of that human, who will not be returning home or going to work, or standing in line, to buy that latte after all, still we do not learn. If that doesn't get us...then maybe nothing will.
We still will not set the example of caring and sharing. Is there nothing that can't be overcome by a little sharing and tolerance? How about sharing and minding your own business. What about that route? It's not just Jesus that spoke about that, lots of religions have that theme in common.
It's not the Spirit of the Holidays that gets me down...it's the hypocrisy that gets to me.
As there are people among us who feel that there is a giant war on taking Christ out of Christmas...and they have threatened to boycott stores that say Happy Holidays, instead of Merry Christmas...well good for you. GOOD FOR YOU!@#@!@!!!
What in the hell are you doing shopping anyway?
To me, the amount of commercialism of the fucking supposed birthday of Christ, which was really sometime in July, and moved to take over the pagan Winter Solstice, anyway, the commercialism is paramount. So good for you Christians who are not shopping!!!! Good for you! Even the Pope said as much. I'm not Catholic, but he did make a great point recently.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051211/ap_on_re_eu/pope_nativity
"In today's consumer society, this time (of the year) is unfortunately subjected to a sort of commercial 'pollution' that is in danger of altering its true spirit, which is characterized by meditation, sobriety and by a joy that is not exterior but intimate," the pope said in his traditional Sunday blessing."
But, maybe there's some hope after all.
I've recently read where we're roping in the Patriot Act in lieu of protecting our civil rights. That's a nice turn of events for the holidays. I don't really own anything but my civil rights...so that a nice gift. The money spent on wire taping my house or checking my hospital records, or viewing my reading list, only to find out that I am a boring sort, who's not doing much of anything, yes, the money spent on this could be used to feed several of the growing number of homeless people that I see standing more and more on my city street corners. These people we have defeated to make into possible criminals who will need to steal to eat or stay warm. Spend the money on that.
And also, there's been some articles on how playdoh and cut off fingers can fool biometric securities. Which I also found promising for the holidays. I'm poor. I do not want to have to scan my eyeball to get into my house. That's just weird. It's weird to spend my time making and taking such extravagant measures for securities. If you need this level of security, well, in my opinion, maybe you own too much crap, and should be involved in a little more caring and sharing. Does anyone know the statistics on the wealthy people who need this type of security?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051211/ap_on_re_eu/pope_nativity
"In today's consumer society, this time (of the year) is unfortunately subjected to a sort of commercial 'pollution' that is in danger of altering its true spirit, which is characterized by meditation, sobriety and by a joy that is not exterior but intimate," the pope said in his traditional Sunday blessing."
But, maybe there's some hope after all.
I've recently read where we're roping in the Patriot Act in lieu of protecting our civil rights. That's a nice turn of events for the holidays. I don't really own anything but my civil rights...so that a nice gift. The money spent on wire taping my house or checking my hospital records, or viewing my reading list, only to find out that I am a boring sort, who's not doing much of anything, yes, the money spent on this could be used to feed several of the growing number of homeless people that I see standing more and more on my city street corners. These people we have defeated to make into possible criminals who will need to steal to eat or stay warm. Spend the money on that.
And also, there's been some articles on how playdoh and cut off fingers can fool biometric securities. Which I also found promising for the holidays. I'm poor. I do not want to have to scan my eyeball to get into my house. That's just weird. It's weird to spend my time making and taking such extravagant measures for securities. If you need this level of security, well, in my opinion, maybe you own too much crap, and should be involved in a little more caring and sharing. Does anyone know the statistics on the wealthy people who need this type of security?
And besides, for every human invention, there will always be another human invention to defeat and make obsolete the first human invention. There will always be criminals. Unless we take the route of not making things enticing enough for people to want to steal. But, I suppose trying to make things not enticing isn't a very enticing route to take.
We have become a society, a world, of Hurry Up and Get As Much Crap As Possible Stacked Up Before We Die. Well, maybe we've always been that way. Bonking each other on the head as cavemen for the better slice of mammoth...the warmer piece of fur, etc. Adam and Eve did eat the apple, didn't they? Too enticing, after being given paradise, to enticing just not to touch. Today this has become a fable, a story, not a lesson to learn and live by. And now we need biometrics to protect all of our shiny apples.
I'm not going to be able to keep up with all of that. I don't want to. I do not want your shiny apples.
We have become a society, a world, of Hurry Up and Get As Much Crap As Possible Stacked Up Before We Die. Well, maybe we've always been that way. Bonking each other on the head as cavemen for the better slice of mammoth...the warmer piece of fur, etc. Adam and Eve did eat the apple, didn't they? Too enticing, after being given paradise, to enticing just not to touch. Today this has become a fable, a story, not a lesson to learn and live by. And now we need biometrics to protect all of our shiny apples.
I'm not going to be able to keep up with all of that. I don't want to. I do not want your shiny apples.
I'm changing myself. I see that others are changing this season as well. We can be proud of ourselves for that. We can make Jesus and others like him, proud of us for that. Maybe, then, hanging on a cross, with giant pegs hammered into his body parts, starving and with thirst, waiting in the cooking sun to die, maybe that wouldn't be in vain after all. Please feel free to meditate on that image for a minute, then open your eyes to see if there's not some crap in your house you could let go of, or donate. I'm thinking about giving this a whirl.
So, maybe that's my goal. I will share and care what little I have. And this year not to let the hypocrisy of the holidays get me down, or make me loose sight of my intended good cheer.
So, maybe that's my goal. I will share and care what little I have. And this year not to let the hypocrisy of the holidays get me down, or make me loose sight of my intended good cheer.
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