So much

This just in - I am now the proud aunt of a GIRL! I honestly didn't think it was ever going to happen, but I am happy to announce that I was wrong and would like to introduce you to Selah Rose. To avoid any confusion, I should probably clarify that she is Todd and Mandi's.

My first Christmas away from home was...interesting. After six days of vomiting profusely and stumbling my way into the doctor's office for any kind of relief - drugs, tranquilizers, guns - I finally took a turn for good on Saturday afternoon. As much as I desired to see my family, I am so thankful that I did not have to travel or cancel plans because of my sudden illness.

So, back among the living, I am at work for the first time in a week and I anticipate getting healthier. I hope everyone is having a lovely week.

One friend responds...

Lindy, it's not necessarily all about you... :-)

I wish I could do my best Bill Clinton impression and say "I feel your pain." but I can't.

This is one (of many) tempests that I can't seem to get all atwitter over.

Now, I may be one of the most devout "bah humbug"ers ever. I mean, I love advent and nativity...but I don't decorate, I don't buy a Christmas tree, and I rarely send out Christmas Cards. But I try, deep within my little heart, to celebrate Christmas. I truly do... (mmm, Immanuel. God with us. We shall have a sign, a child will be born and he will be known as Immanuel. What a fabulous theme.)

I feel ambivalent. Target and Wal-Mart and whoever else we want to pick on are in a simple business: Separate you from your dollars so that they, the company, make money. Preferably truckloads of it. They're free to market fir trees as Christmas trees, holiday trees, Chanakah Trees, firewood or freshly murdered Colorado forest. That's their prerogative.

And consumers are free to pitch a hissy-fit whenever they want in order to get their way. This is their prerogative.

(there's a whole tangent I'd like to explore aboutconnoting and denoting meaning for holidays. I mean, seriously....A Christian is going to buy a tree for his or her own symbolic use, and cares whether the store calls it a "Christmas" tree or not? So much for the mystery of symbols....)

I watched the Charlie Brown Christmas Special theother week--that's probably what did me in. For how many decades have we been decrying the commercialization of Christmas? So I say "fine", let them secularize the entire month of December. I'm content with it being the aegis of the church to note the high holy season without relying on plastic reindeer and inflatable Santas to communicate our message.

How /do/ we balance our commercial interests and apluralistic society? Because there is a part of methat feels for people put off by the whole themes ofChristmas. Free enterprise is certainly a different beast than state sanctioning, but it was small Christian sects who came to the colonies seeking freedom OF and freedom FROM religion. What does that mean today? How much are we willing to set aside ourown culture to ensure the peaceful coexistance withothers? How much of our religion must manifest itself in public profiteering?

I can understand why businesses seek the least common denominator, so that they can never be accused ofstepping too far afield of the mytical "center" of public opinion. What worries me is the impact of this on individuals. I heard a woman at work talking to someone on the phone saying "Merry Christmas! Oh,wait, I can't say that..." It was probably a joke, but how does the corporate rhetoric of pluralism affect the individual? Because that's the beauty ofthis country and this society...you (and my coworker) are free to wish Merry Christmas to whomever you want (and the cashier is free to scowl as much as she wants). We are free to patronize, evangelize, criticize or antagonize. We just have to concede that everyone else has those same rights.

So. What do we want? Are we willing to decommercialize our own holidays and /or accept a free-market view of our society (every Christmas aisle begets a Chanakah aisle begets a Ramadan aisle begetsa Kwanzaa aisle)? Do we want to continue to see the Christmas season as it is filtered through Target's ads, Budweiser's horse-drawn beer cart and every other company's marketing department?

I don't know. I'm content to let Target do their thing and I'll do my thing. That's a nice Libertarian point of view, isn't it?

Lindy, I guess I should bein NH and you should be in the Bible (so long as it isKJV) Belt... :-)

Merry X-mas!
bks

This individual gave me permission to publish his email. Feel free to respond to his insight. I'd like to see healthy debate here, whether you agree or disagree, or perhaps can't decide.

A Must See - Blue Man Group

Against all odds Saturday evening - time restraint, faulty breaks, incoherent Boston directions - nothing could keep Brad and I from looking this man directly in the eyes. I will not shy from saying that this could possibly be one of the best birthday gifts I have awarded in my day. Comedic, energetic, and quite talented these men left me amazed by the "volume" of mere body language. Typical of Blue Man stature, the three men did not speak a single word throughout their performance and yet the communication through their eyes and movements was plenty to create an intense atmosphere of laughter, fun, and rave-like proportions.

How often do we speak so loudly that we don't pay attention to our actions?

Bleep-mas

Holiday trees, Merry Winter pageants, tolerance, political correctness... Did someone say "freedom?"

Could it be that we have finally snapped to the day in which our freedoms are exactly what are keeping us from being who we are? Target, among Best Buy and several other corporations have refused to host the presence of Salvation Army bell ringers because it offends their customers who, "Come knowing exactly what they want to buy and don't want to be bothered by third party solicitors." Christmas trees in Boston can only be identified as holiday trees (Note: root word "holy. Also note: Christmas trees are a "pagan" tradition in the first place.) A family in Michigan went to court a couple of weeks ago after being told to remove the nativity from their lawn or expect to pay $100 until it was gone. School teachers having to fight for their students to read A Christmas Carol in the classroom.

As I am situated on the brink of settling down and one day having a family, I have to seriously consider the risk in bringing children into this world. What is it going to look like for them?

I am sick of receiving dirty looks at the grocery stores and doctor's office because I wish them a Merry Christmas. I am tired of backing down and prancing around the athiests, liberals, and overly-sensitive (just becuase we have allowed them to be). I am sick of them dictating who I am allowed to be in my so-called "free" country.

So, I'm not going to let them.

I am Lindy and as Lindy, I not only want to, but will wish you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS regardless of whether or not you are religious, a naturally happy person, a person at all, a sad person seeking merriment, an individual accustomed to celebratory days of the year, one who has multiple personalities and can't decide which holiday to celebrate, someone who has no one to party with and hence must grovel in your own self-pity and disaster like Scrooge, or whether you even know what "Christmas" or "merry" mean. I am guilty to assume that if you don't know the meaning of said terms I am techinically putting you in the position of seeking the meaning and hence imposing my ideals upon your naive head. To this I owe no apology. Suck it up, America. It's time to focus on the importance of life, not your excuse for being grumpy day in and day out.

It's the most wonderful time of year, after all.

Suppose...

...I would leave an entry worth reading.

Not today. Maybe tomorrow.

If you're lucky.