Losing my religion...

... or more like having it stolen from me.

As we close in on Christmas, I have been amazed at all the effort this year to take the Christianity out of Christmas. Granted, Christmas has for many years now been quickly becoming a commercial holiday rather than a religious one but that is besides the point. What I am talking about is that it seems these last few weeks there has been a signifcant rise in the accounts of not being able to celebrate or even acknowledge the religious aspects of Christmas. At the University of Illinois you cannot have a Christmas Tree in the common areas of the dorms and displaying Christmas messages or symbols in your window is being questioned. This is because some students were complaining about the "offensiveness" of the displays. Offensive!!?? A tree or Santa Claus?!?! Talk about thin skinned! Also, at many parties held this season, they are "holiday" parties rather than Christmas parties, but yet they are complete with all the Christmas trimmings, that are both obivious and subtle in their religious connotation. But yet, you can't call it Christmas. But it is the Advent season in the Christian calendar and on the 24th it will officially be the Christmas season, although the retail stores would have you beleive it started October 1st.

At church on last sunday the high school aged students presented a throughly modern play that through to me about how the real reason for celebrating Christmas has been lost to so many. For Christians, it is the celebration of the birth of their savior, and so we celebrate by giving gifts to loved ones much like the wisemen or kings of the bible story did at Jesus' birth. Retails stores have picked up on this and made it into their main season of sales and made it the commercialized holiday that it is and we Christians, along with everyone else that likes getting gifts have played into their hands and help the process along. However, no matter what you believe, never forget that you are also playing right along with the Christian belief that the saviour of the world was born in Jerusalem many years ago and began a long process of dying for your sins so that you might be saved in the end of all things. Don't tell me you can celebrate Christmas without celebrating Christ because it goes hand in hand. Can you celebrate Ramadan and ignore the Koran and writings of Mohammed, or celebrate Hannukah and ignore the significance of the Hannukah story. Probably, but it make the holidays a little hollow for those who follow those beliefs. I don't celebrate those holidays because they are not my beliefs but I respect them and would never think of telling those who do celebrate them that they can't include very signicant portions of their beleif system in their celebrations. I don't care if they are not commercially signifcant in the US or world economy. Just because my holiday is and it is very wide spread, doesn't mean I have to hold back or curtail aspects of it so that I don't offend someone of a different belief.

Let me have my holiday in its totallity and I will let others have theirs. For me Christmas is a very special holiday. It allows me to imitate God's love for me, by giving gifts to my family in somewhat of the same manner that he gave me a gift. Love and family, God's and mine, that is what Christmas means to me.

I am sorry if this is somewhat rambling but religion is a tough thing for me to speak on but I think you get my meaning. Thanks and Merry Christmas!

Material Things

Recently I witnessed a very disturbing sight. On a Tuesday evening, I was called to the "home" of one of my best friends to be with him as his home burnt. I have never been close to someone who has suffered from a home fire and it was very traumatic not only for him, but for me. To sit there and watch as his home, his belongings, his treasures burned is unlike anything I have ever experienced. When someone loses a loved one, you can always console them, tell them that it will be okay and that they will always live on in memory and that the loved one has gone to a better place. However, with a fire, I found that there was little I could tell my friend other than, "What is your insurance like?" (Pretty impersonal, huh?) Really! That is all that you can really say. Unlike a loved one, of whom death is usually expected at some time or another, a fire that destroys all that you hold dear or precious or valuable in some way, is never expected. If it was, would we continue to buy things and store them all in one place, that in many ways is nothing more than a wooden box waiting to catch fire?

My friend is not a material person, but even he was moved to tears to know that his belongings were gone. I was even surprised to hear him say, "Everything that important to me was in there." And even more saddening was to hear that even though it was not pretty, not big, he was comfortable in his house and he and his girls called it "home."

He will rebuild and it will be "home" again. But what about all that stuff that he accrued over many years. Some of it he had since childhood. How do you replace that. I guess that too will live on in memory like a loved one that has crossed over...

I have a ton of stuff in my home and each and everybit of it means something to me in some way or another. There are some items that I really would not care if they were lost, but some things, like my books, my sword and gun collection, the pictures and childhood items... if they were lost, it would feel like a major part of my life were to be erased! There is no way I could replace them. I would not even try. I almost think that these material items are part of my identity and in some way part of what makes me, me. When people think of a sword or a gun they see or hear about, or a history or fantacy book, they often think of me, or vice versa.

So what is this all about? I don't know. Just that don't covet your material possessions, because they are not nearly as important as your faith, family and friends, but at the same time, life is short so go out and buy something that means something to you. Something that makes you, you. Your possessions are part of what you say about yourself to the rest of the world. And do your best to fireproof your home... (after writing this, I probably shouldn't listen to myself, 'cause I just found a motorcylce that I fell in love with....)

Burned bulbs and off-line

Ever wake your kids up and have them immediately start crying for no reason, and then find out that they are missing their mom? Talk about a tough thing to take in the morning. My kids miss me when I am gone, but I doubt that they voice their feelings as much as they do when their mom is gone. ( I think I am kind of jealous about that) They have been kind of blah , but I have been keeping them pretty busy and entertained the last few days and they are pretty tired when they go to bed but still I think they feel like I do. When mom is gone, it feels like one light is burned out in a beautiful chandelier and you can't wait for the bulb to be burning bright again. The house is just a little dimmer without mom around to them. And it wasn't really until this morning with the kids crying and then when I got to work and didn't see that she was online with Yahoo Messenger, (she always is online) that i really started to miss her. But like I said to the kids, it will be okay and Thursday will be here soon enough! At least I can do Christmas shopping with out having to sneak!