Merry Christmas, Everybody!
Time for a philosophical musing from yours truly.
Tonight at 10:00 Mass (yes, I'm from a Catholic family), I started thinking about why Christmas means so much to everyone. I figured it out: it isn't about the presents (but everyone knows that) or even seeing relatives that you only see like once a year (though that's part of it). It's not even really about the birth of Jesus---not as just a birth, anyway. It's about what his birth represents: hope. It's about hoping that things will get better, that there's something out there that's bigger than we are and that it's willing to help us, and that we will help each other. It's this hope that brings us together and makes us all feel warm and fuzzy. It's this hope that gives us that warm and fuzzy feeling; it causes us to help others.
I'd just like to note why I think it's easier to celebrate Jesus's birth than it is to celebrate his death. His birth represents the beginning of something new, of that hope for the future. The future is in the hands of the children, and that's what Jesus was when he came into the world. It's harder to celebrate Easter because we see death as the end, but it isn't really the end. It's part of a cycle---to quote The Lion King, it's part of the circle of life. Death makes way for more birth, and for rebirth---a tree's leaves must die in winter so that it can bear new ones in the spring.
I'm not super-religious at all, but this subject might make it seem like that because it blurs the line between philosophy and theology.
Merry Christmas to All, and May the Force Be with You! I mean, Live Long and Prosper! Wait, here it is:
Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!
Tonight at 10:00 Mass (yes, I'm from a Catholic family), I started thinking about why Christmas means so much to everyone. I figured it out: it isn't about the presents (but everyone knows that) or even seeing relatives that you only see like once a year (though that's part of it). It's not even really about the birth of Jesus---not as just a birth, anyway. It's about what his birth represents: hope. It's about hoping that things will get better, that there's something out there that's bigger than we are and that it's willing to help us, and that we will help each other. It's this hope that brings us together and makes us all feel warm and fuzzy. It's this hope that gives us that warm and fuzzy feeling; it causes us to help others.
I'd just like to note why I think it's easier to celebrate Jesus's birth than it is to celebrate his death. His birth represents the beginning of something new, of that hope for the future. The future is in the hands of the children, and that's what Jesus was when he came into the world. It's harder to celebrate Easter because we see death as the end, but it isn't really the end. It's part of a cycle---to quote The Lion King, it's part of the circle of life. Death makes way for more birth, and for rebirth---a tree's leaves must die in winter so that it can bear new ones in the spring.
I'm not super-religious at all, but this subject might make it seem like that because it blurs the line between philosophy and theology.
Merry Christmas to All, and May the Force Be with You! I mean, Live Long and Prosper! Wait, here it is:
Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!