Moments ago I refreshed my Facebook homepage and was met with a head smackingly obnoxious status update of a "friend," a person I may just have to unfriend over this shit.
When I joined Facebook I intended it to be the family safe place because my brothers and then parents were all members. I thought I was happy with Myspace being the place I was going to be out and myself, but over time things changed. I grew to like Fb more and became friends there with more and more of my actual friends.
I then found myself being friends with a number of people I'd gone to church and school with as a child, though the overly conservative right wing type stuff soon caused me to remove all those people from my friends. I realized I wasn't actually friends with these people and didn't want to be.
One of my two closest friends as a child/teen is now the only of those people with whom I'm still friends, though I haven't spoken to him in nearly twenty years and likely have absolutely nothing in common beyond some shared childhood.
As of today I might just have to remove him. His status update is one of those typical Fb polls, though this one is just stupid. Apparently we are asked to vote yes or no as to whether we agree with President Obama referring to the White House's celebratory tree and whether it's okay for it to be referred to as a holiday tree or whether he must refer to it as a Christmas tree.
First, I don't give a fuck what he calls it, and I can't imagine why it matters. Of course I get why the wingnuts are going to shit themselves over it since they can't stand the fact that there does truly exist a separation of church and state or that people might ever try to be sensitive to the beliefs of others. Second, it isn't even Thanksgiving yet. Nearly seven weeks till Christmas and the douchebags are already fussing.
I'm so not looking forward to any of this shit. I care little enough for the holiday season anyway, and I don't celebrate the christian version of the holiday, nor do I celebrate the solstice aspect of the event. I'll accept an excuse to get together with what friends and family I'm able, and I always love a huge meal with those friends and family.
Just give us this one year that we don't have to deal with the wingnuttery. Though the people who most need to hear this aren't here at my blog, I'd still like to beg them to please just let it go. So many people are going to approach this holiday to celebrate their own variant of the day, and it really is okay. Christians do not own the day or the celebration, and their whole version of it is basically stolen in part or in whole from other belief systems. So please, please just let it go.
Also, I didn't forget the Jews, but I'm not going to sit here and be sensitive enough to figure out the one true spelling of whatever they hell they call it. And black people can have there one too, but again, I don't celebrate it and am not at all concerned. Shit, Jews and black people are likely those people most reasonable about the fact that we all have our own approach and are most willing, it seems, to live and let live. So for that I thank you.
p.s. maybe the sensible ones among us should use this particular year to be the assholes and get uptight and offended, clutching our pearls and being aghast when people wish us Merry Christmas.
p.p.s. I suppose that, given my choice to blog about this, I'm fueling the fire and doing the thing I'm bitching about. If you're surprised by this then you don't know me.
2 comments:
Hey Sam, it is Lorana - Chris's wife. I obviously don't know you, other than through this blog, and you definitely don't know me.
I do agree that things like this get way too ridiculous. Church and state are separate, and nobody should be forced to celebrate anything, in any particular way. Christianity is a choice, not an obligation. Those who choose it, who believe it, are I suppose "obligated" to share - but they don't have to do it by making the White House call their tree a "Christmas Tree". I don't think the central message of Christianity is best communicated through a pine tree, nor do I think calling that tree by some other name weakens the holiday.
I did laugh to myself, though, when you stated that "Christians don't own the day or the celebration." While nobody owns the 25th of December, Christians DO own "Christmas". It is the celebration of the birth of Christ - which means it basically is limited to Christians (or Christian offshoots). Other religions really have no reason to celebrate this event (since they don't believe in this Christ dude - or, rather, don't believe he was anyone special, if he did exist). Christians get to choose how to celebrate, since it is...well, their day. But they DON'T get to choose how others must celebrate it. They only get to decide how they are going to celebrate their own beliefs, and can't force it on others.
If others choose to acknowledge the day of Christmas by buying presents and decorating a tree, no problem - just realize they aren't celebrating "Christmas" (even though they might give it that name). They are simply celebrating December 25th, the day of toys and whatever! :-) (Which is, btw, the way I grew up - not in a Christian home, but with lots of presents on that day!). And those who have other religious beliefs can celebrate those beliefs on whatever day they want - on the actual holiday, or on the 25th if they so choose.
This is perhaps meandering, but ultimately, I agree with you. The only thing I don't agree with is the lumping of "Christians" together based on this one guy's comment, or even, ultimately, on your upbringing. Christians are as different as...oh, I don't know, HUMANS. It is almost as if we ARE human, with our own free wills and independent thoughts. That may not be the Christianity you were taught growing up, and that is unfortunate. But reality is...we are people too, and can be just as open-minded as anyone else. Just know that we also have sincere beliefs that might color our reality and inform our opinions - but that doesn't make us any more wrong than you, with your own sincere (perhaps opposing) beliefs.
Hope that wasn't the worst way to introduce myself. But hey...it had to be done sometime...
Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog. I take it you have been a stalker who decided to come in from the cold. Come again.
Lucky you to live near the Smokey Mountains. I have some precious blogging friends who live in or near the mountains. Only briefly have I ever passed through. There was a time I thought about candidating for our church in Asheville. I have a brother nearby in Charlotte.
Some day I hope to save enough money to return.
I recently acquire a lady friend who is wealthy. I should probably say she acquired me. (It is a tale to tell) If I can get past the feeling of being the Canadian Gigolo, we may have a lovely romance. She wants me to travel with her, money is no object, she says. Yesterday she emailed me from the Great Wall of China. Life sure is getting interesting. I told her a trip down the Blue Ridge Parkeway is good enough for me. She liked the idea. Who knows!
I read your blog and hope to read more. I read your other blog and found it interesting and even moving at points. I hope you continue to write in it also.
I am glad you get something out of my blog. I write it to amuse myself. It often speaks as if I have an American audience, which I do. I have a lifelong interest in comparing American and Canadian culture. I am a Canadian who has lived in the US and has considerable affection for it, (as well as outrage at its shortcomings). Other than that it is about my quiet life (about to get more exciting) around here with my beloved Great Dane.
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