What really is the meaning of christmas?
It's been a while, I know. I've been busy.
I'm writing this kind of as an internal dialogue. Something just now set me thinking, and I want to document where it's all going just in case this is just a creation of my exhaustion-addled mind.
Christmas is a holiday, like many others, commercialized to the point of being utterly alien to its original purpose. Just think about it. Christ-mas. Christ-day. The day made a holiday in celebration of the birth of Christ. The day where believers are encouraged to celebrate the birth of Christ. From there it morphed, somewhere along the way gift-giving was added in, probably in reference to the gifts the 3 wise men gave to Mary upon meeting the baby Jesus.
What is it now?
A big post on one of my gaming forums titled (aptly) "What do you want for xmas?" kind of set me thinking. That's what it is now! It's all about what _I_ want, what I want other people to give me. What does this all have to do with the birth of one of the 3 primary religion's founding fathers?
Why do people go absolutely crazy to get the newest fad gift to give to their spoiled little kids? Why are the vast majority of the crazy shoppers agnostics who haven't the slightest care for the root of the "holiday" they are spending thousands upon thousands of dollars to "celebrate"? I get it, little Jimmy sees all the christmas ads on tv and demands all the excitement for himself. When I was young I wanted to celebrate Hannukah as well, just because they get 7 days of gifts!
Because that's what matters to children. Getting this, getting that. And this is perfectly acceptable for little children who haven't the life experience to understand that there's more to life then "gimme gimme". I think it's absolutely disgraceful of parents who through a combination of loving for their kids (good) and ignorance of reality (bad) decide that when Jimmy says "gimme gimme", they go "gotta get it for him". But maybe I'm just bitter. Maybe I'm tired of seeing the new cars given to little Suzy and the PSPs Charlie gets, while I have to suffice with whatever the budget can spare.
No.
I'm not tired of it. I'm thankful for it. It's opened my eyes. Life isn't about getting everything you want all the time. You don't learn anything that way! I'm writing this on a computer which (bragging aside) is vastly better then almost every computer I know of. This is not because I said "gimme gimme" and Dad said "here ya go". This is because I said "gimme gimme", Dad rightfully said "No", and I went out and earned the money to buy it for myself. The best gift one can recieve is the knowledge that one's existence is firmly rooted in reality. I don't get everything I want. At one level, at the shallow level, this makes me angry. That's ok, because at the other level, I understand that not only can Daddy's jobless wallet not afford it, but the very not getting is a gift in and of itself. If I got everything I wanted, I wouldn't have ever learned the will to go out and earn what I want for myself. If I can rely on someone else to do everything for me, then I never have to do _anything_.
I've decided I don't want anything for christmas.
I don't want my family to spend money they can't spare on a gift which if I really wanted I'd go spend the money and buy it for myself. Because the gifts worth recieving are those which money can't buy. Love, happiness, contentedness, knowledge. Those are the true gifts. Some I have, some I don't. One shirt, one game, one this one that, none will grant me what I don't have. This time of the year is oh-so-stressful. Living in this area like we do, we're surrounded by people who get every whim fulfilled by Daddy's checkbook. But you'll notice one common trait in all of them: they're not happy. Material orgasms over this one-uppance or that fad item sure, but none of them are truly happy. Because they haven't realized that happiness, that satisfaction, that the feeling of satedness, cannot be bought.
I have my gift. I have my love, I have my work, I still live in the same house I did last year, everyone around me is still alive. That's all I ask, because that's all that matters to me. That doesn't mean that I'm going to scrooge out of the holidays, I've been wracking my brain to come up with gifts for everyone, but.. it does grant me a certain detachedness in this time of utter chaos. I don't have to worry whether I'm going to get everything I want, because I have it already. Well, that's not true. A letter of acceptance from WSU, and it'll be absolutely golden.. but I digress. I want this season to be over. I want people to return from this feeding frenzy of indulgence to the lax carelessness they display towards each other the rest of the year.
At least then I know it's real.
I'm writing this kind of as an internal dialogue. Something just now set me thinking, and I want to document where it's all going just in case this is just a creation of my exhaustion-addled mind.
Christmas is a holiday, like many others, commercialized to the point of being utterly alien to its original purpose. Just think about it. Christ-mas. Christ-day. The day made a holiday in celebration of the birth of Christ. The day where believers are encouraged to celebrate the birth of Christ. From there it morphed, somewhere along the way gift-giving was added in, probably in reference to the gifts the 3 wise men gave to Mary upon meeting the baby Jesus.
What is it now?
A big post on one of my gaming forums titled (aptly) "What do you want for xmas?" kind of set me thinking. That's what it is now! It's all about what _I_ want, what I want other people to give me. What does this all have to do with the birth of one of the 3 primary religion's founding fathers?
Why do people go absolutely crazy to get the newest fad gift to give to their spoiled little kids? Why are the vast majority of the crazy shoppers agnostics who haven't the slightest care for the root of the "holiday" they are spending thousands upon thousands of dollars to "celebrate"? I get it, little Jimmy sees all the christmas ads on tv and demands all the excitement for himself. When I was young I wanted to celebrate Hannukah as well, just because they get 7 days of gifts!
Because that's what matters to children. Getting this, getting that. And this is perfectly acceptable for little children who haven't the life experience to understand that there's more to life then "gimme gimme". I think it's absolutely disgraceful of parents who through a combination of loving for their kids (good) and ignorance of reality (bad) decide that when Jimmy says "gimme gimme", they go "gotta get it for him". But maybe I'm just bitter. Maybe I'm tired of seeing the new cars given to little Suzy and the PSPs Charlie gets, while I have to suffice with whatever the budget can spare.
No.
I'm not tired of it. I'm thankful for it. It's opened my eyes. Life isn't about getting everything you want all the time. You don't learn anything that way! I'm writing this on a computer which (bragging aside) is vastly better then almost every computer I know of. This is not because I said "gimme gimme" and Dad said "here ya go". This is because I said "gimme gimme", Dad rightfully said "No", and I went out and earned the money to buy it for myself. The best gift one can recieve is the knowledge that one's existence is firmly rooted in reality. I don't get everything I want. At one level, at the shallow level, this makes me angry. That's ok, because at the other level, I understand that not only can Daddy's jobless wallet not afford it, but the very not getting is a gift in and of itself. If I got everything I wanted, I wouldn't have ever learned the will to go out and earn what I want for myself. If I can rely on someone else to do everything for me, then I never have to do _anything_.
I've decided I don't want anything for christmas.
I don't want my family to spend money they can't spare on a gift which if I really wanted I'd go spend the money and buy it for myself. Because the gifts worth recieving are those which money can't buy. Love, happiness, contentedness, knowledge. Those are the true gifts. Some I have, some I don't. One shirt, one game, one this one that, none will grant me what I don't have. This time of the year is oh-so-stressful. Living in this area like we do, we're surrounded by people who get every whim fulfilled by Daddy's checkbook. But you'll notice one common trait in all of them: they're not happy. Material orgasms over this one-uppance or that fad item sure, but none of them are truly happy. Because they haven't realized that happiness, that satisfaction, that the feeling of satedness, cannot be bought.
I have my gift. I have my love, I have my work, I still live in the same house I did last year, everyone around me is still alive. That's all I ask, because that's all that matters to me. That doesn't mean that I'm going to scrooge out of the holidays, I've been wracking my brain to come up with gifts for everyone, but.. it does grant me a certain detachedness in this time of utter chaos. I don't have to worry whether I'm going to get everything I want, because I have it already. Well, that's not true. A letter of acceptance from WSU, and it'll be absolutely golden.. but I digress. I want this season to be over. I want people to return from this feeding frenzy of indulgence to the lax carelessness they display towards each other the rest of the year.
At least then I know it's real.