Christmas Post
Well, I guess it's time for the obligatory blog entry on Christmas. So, here goes:
I don't find myself very enthused about Christmas almost ever. I think celebrating the winter solstice would be better, if everyone was on board, because it's more concrete. You can see that the sun is as far south as it will go, the night is as long as it will get. That's pretty damn mystical. Really that explains why Christmas is where it is in the calender. It was set there to help convert pagans, because no one knew when Jesus was born (probably in the spring, I hear). But given that no one in an industrial society cut off almost completely from natural cycles cares about the solstice, I'm stuck with Christmas.
Not really being a Christian, I don't find it that inspiring. Yeah, I was raised Catholic, but have explored other religions too much, and see far too much common ground between them, to really claim allegiance to just one. "Though the lamps be many, one light." The differences are all historical and cultural; the similarities are in all the important stuff.
So anyways, I don't see Jesus as much more than a prophet-sage-mystic. Not to diminish what he achieved, though. He, like the Buddha or Lao Tzu, found the God-within. He tried to teach others to do the same, and was killed for his blasphemy. You gotta love the rebel-Jesus, right? Brazenly standing up to the Establishment, who hoarded God for themselves, even as they themselves missed the point entirely. So, even to celebrate the birth of a great prophet-sage, I'm not really into it. It's like hero worship. Ok, Jesus found the Way. Great. Bowing down to him won't get ME there. I can follow his teaching, but there's no need to deify him. Climbing the signpost to Rome won't get you to Rome, now will it? Read the sign, understand it's meaning, then (the part most believers miss), walk down the road. (maybe realizing that it isn't the only correct sign in the world would help...) But really, Jesus came to teach us to do what he did, which is pretty damn cool, if we'd only embrace it, instead of the literalism we're usually stuck with.
And of course, it hardly needs to be said that Christmas is for most of us just a consumerist orgy of excess, materialism and greed run rampant. It offends me. And anyone who knows me knows I'm a total grinch when it comes to Christmas music.
I guess the meaning that exists for something is only the meaning you give to it. Christmas can be a lot of things: a religious event, a disgusting consumerist orgy, a time for seeing family, a time for presents, a depressing lonely time for suicide, or nothing at all. I would bet that for most people, it's a little of all of those things rolled together; it is for me at least. But in the end, we choose our realities by what we place value on. So, despite the more distasteful things about Christmas, I find myself trying to focus on the good side of it: the reminder to my spiritual self, the giving (and yes, the getting), the family and friends and parties, decorations and festive spirit. There's two sides to everything, good and bad. Which one we choose to dwell on is up to us. For, "as a man thinketh, so is he."
I don't find myself very enthused about Christmas almost ever. I think celebrating the winter solstice would be better, if everyone was on board, because it's more concrete. You can see that the sun is as far south as it will go, the night is as long as it will get. That's pretty damn mystical. Really that explains why Christmas is where it is in the calender. It was set there to help convert pagans, because no one knew when Jesus was born (probably in the spring, I hear). But given that no one in an industrial society cut off almost completely from natural cycles cares about the solstice, I'm stuck with Christmas.
Not really being a Christian, I don't find it that inspiring. Yeah, I was raised Catholic, but have explored other religions too much, and see far too much common ground between them, to really claim allegiance to just one. "Though the lamps be many, one light." The differences are all historical and cultural; the similarities are in all the important stuff.
So anyways, I don't see Jesus as much more than a prophet-sage-mystic. Not to diminish what he achieved, though. He, like the Buddha or Lao Tzu, found the God-within. He tried to teach others to do the same, and was killed for his blasphemy. You gotta love the rebel-Jesus, right? Brazenly standing up to the Establishment, who hoarded God for themselves, even as they themselves missed the point entirely. So, even to celebrate the birth of a great prophet-sage, I'm not really into it. It's like hero worship. Ok, Jesus found the Way. Great. Bowing down to him won't get ME there. I can follow his teaching, but there's no need to deify him. Climbing the signpost to Rome won't get you to Rome, now will it? Read the sign, understand it's meaning, then (the part most believers miss), walk down the road. (maybe realizing that it isn't the only correct sign in the world would help...) But really, Jesus came to teach us to do what he did, which is pretty damn cool, if we'd only embrace it, instead of the literalism we're usually stuck with.
And of course, it hardly needs to be said that Christmas is for most of us just a consumerist orgy of excess, materialism and greed run rampant. It offends me. And anyone who knows me knows I'm a total grinch when it comes to Christmas music.
I guess the meaning that exists for something is only the meaning you give to it. Christmas can be a lot of things: a religious event, a disgusting consumerist orgy, a time for seeing family, a time for presents, a depressing lonely time for suicide, or nothing at all. I would bet that for most people, it's a little of all of those things rolled together; it is for me at least. But in the end, we choose our realities by what we place value on. So, despite the more distasteful things about Christmas, I find myself trying to focus on the good side of it: the reminder to my spiritual self, the giving (and yes, the getting), the family and friends and parties, decorations and festive spirit. There's two sides to everything, good and bad. Which one we choose to dwell on is up to us. For, "as a man thinketh, so is he."
posted by Brandon at 6:45 PM
1 Comments:
i definetly agree with you on that. Christmas is very very materialistic. It usually takes me awhile to get into the spirit. I think it's because there was no snow at all this year that it was hard. You're right about the whole celebrating winter thing. That's what makes Christmas feel like how it feels. Thats just my opinion though.
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