2005-11-30 - 10:44 a.m.
People are so very confused and I guess I can�t blame them for that, as the educational system has (by design, apparently) been successful in dumbing their spirit down into manipulatable fodder for the labor machine. But hey, I realize that I, myself, am also a victim of that (although I hate to admit it, as �victim� is a very weak place to be). For example, I am still an employee, not an entrepreneur or somebody with my own business or consulting firm or some other independent source of a livelihood, so I allowed myself to get caught up in the �labor fodder� trap, as well. My own laziness and sometimes cautious fear can share the blame for that (and it is the only impactful force in my life that I can do something about), but at least I have not stopped thinking and learning.
An example of this kind of general dumbing down (and another way to say �dumbing down� is �becoming thoughtless�) that has pervaded our country is the �stealing away from us Christmas� (this is supposed to be an expression of �liberal freedom�), and it has gotten so bad that when I checked out the Disneyland website (in preparation for a possible pre-Christmas visit to that magical place), I was actually surprised to see that they unabashedly actually do celebrate Christmas and not some generic idea of a �holiday� (or at least so it looks to me). It�s possible, though, that the kind of �Christmas� Disneyland celebrates is the �Santa Claus� kind and not Jesus in a manger adored by Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds, three wise men, and various barnyard animals, but I am not going to quibble that much�at least they are doing something (and quite a lot, actually, as the entire place is given over to Christmas decoration) and to me Santa Claus is a stand-in for every kind of love impulse and a belief in a universal benevolence, which comes from �a higher power in whatever way that you conceive it�, so Santa Claus can be fully �Christmas�, or not, as one chooses.
It isn�t religious people (of other religions) who want to stop Christmas. I have never in my life heard of anybody Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Moslem, or any other major religion complain about Christmas and all its symbols and trappings. They understand what it is all about, and participate to the extent that they want to and also go ahead and enjoy the freedom to celebrate their own holidays in the manner that they have traditionally celebrated, without interference, I might add.
No, it is the �atheists� (whatever that means) who are against it. This is short-sighted of atheists, who couldn�t possibly help but believe in something, and I don�t think it is too much of a stretch to understand the meaning of Christmas symbols as a celebration of the forces that atheists do believe in. I remember Joseph Campbell speaking of computer chips as �populated and operated by angels�, so how much of a problem is it to see depictions of angels as honoring computer chips, if one is so inclined? Atheists can use this time of year to celebrate gravity or the speed of light or survival of the fittest or the combination of atoms to create molecules or the hydrologic cycle or the intricacies of ecology. And these things do deserve celebration. Honestly, does Santa dispensing gifts from a flying sleigh pulled by reindeer speak of anything factually denotative? Obviously, it is something magical and as wondrous as anything that happens among the galaxies and the super novas, so let the heart soar with wonder and let sweet tears fall with gratitude. This can be Jesus appearing as a miracle in a manger, or Krishna opening his mouth and his mother peering in and seeing all creation within it, or the mysteries of G_d answering prayers sincerely chanted by a yarmulked man wearing a Jewish prayer shawl, or a Moslem on a prayer rug bowing toward Mecca five times a day. In all cases what we are doing is honoring the numinous, something or some things that are greater than we are and that we can hardly begin to fully understand, but that fill us with wonder and appreciation. What is so bad about saying �thank you� to the Universe every once in a while? We ought to be saying it with every breath and with every beat of our heart.
Where was it, New York City, where they have erected a Christmas tree, but are now calling it a �holiday� tree? If the modifier �Christmas� is an offensive word to apply to the tree, then how is �holiday� a more acceptable one? (What does �holiday� mean but �holy day�?) The very symbol is a Christmas one�what else? Are other religions to be stripped of their word names, too? Is the �draedle� now going to be called a �child�s gambling top�? Is the �minorah� going to become a �holiday candlebra�? Are Hindu �mantra beads� going to become �fingering jewelry�? Don�t bet on it.
The erecting of a Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza and calling it that is not �the establishment of a religion�. The kind of thing the amendment to the Constitution was meant to stop was putting people into the stocks for not going to church like they did in Puritan New England, or levying a fine for missing church like they did in Colonial Williamsburg. Nobody in the United States of America suffers any government penalty for not going to church or celebrating a holiday. You�re not pilloried for not going to ice skate around the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza.
If people only knew it, the American nation is filled with almost every conceivable kind of religious practice and nearly every day is holy to somebody. One couldn�t possible celebrate them all, but they are all being celebrated, and that is the point. The Bill of Rights wanted to allow them to be celebrated if people wanted, and not celebrated if people didn�t. Who in their right mind could complain about that? When did the freedom to do mutate into somebody else�s freedom to make sure you can�t do? The power to say �yes� is the true power. �No� is a weak power, the kind of power yearned for by people who are diverted into looking over their fences at their neighbors instead of into their own hearts. Next time somebody is offended by a nativity scene or the word �Christmas,� that is a wake up call. The offense they feel is genuine, but it doesn�t come from what they are seeing and hearing, but from how they are not feeling inside. They�ve got the empty stable, now they need to light it with a star and allow it to be peopled by a miracle. Otherwise, all they�re left with is a lump of coal--stone cold--waiting to be ignited.
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