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Okay, okay, we all should keep thinking. But I've been reading a bunch of pages and posts from people of a divided mind about thanksgiving, and I'm sure that within a week or two I'll be reading the same about christmas. Chanuka, for those who don't know, starts at sunset next tuesday, but it doesn't tend to bother people.
I'm not divided about Thanksgiving. Yes, I'm sorry that the puritans were bastards. I'm sorry that native americans died of smallpox and other more tangible dangers. I am also profoundly thankful that every thanksgiving I spend four days with my immediate family and our 'family of choice', eating excellent food, relaxing in the most perfectlly comfortable company possible, imbibing excellent wine, and sharing in an amazing variety of jokes, songs, and general foolishness. I propose a toast to the Kellington/Zilk/Molitor-Lee tradition - proudly exchanging a puritan holiday for a gustatory festival of mirth and alchohol for 17 years.
Am I thankful? You bet. Should it be only on thanksgiving? Of course not. But come on, when do you have time during the day to stop and think about that, normally? It's easy to get overwhelmed, so we might as well set aside one day, one day when we can be sure to remember. Just because it's 'official' doesn't mean it's meaningless.
Thankful to whom? To my family, to my friends, to my body for surviving, to the world for being inspiring, and to newts for being newts. To Phillip Pullman's 'dust' concept, for being the semi-theological concept I can most identify with. You don't have to be able to address the note to be thankful. To random, exciting chance. C'est la vie.
And on to Christmas:
I like religious Christmas music best, not because I'm a fan of God, but because it means it. The music's much more moving. Christmas, like thanksgiving, is associated entirely with family and warmth for me, not someone else's ideas of God. I'm not giving up my christmas music just because years back I decided I wasn't Christian. My family still sings together every year (we used to celebrate advent with singing and candles), and none of the rest are really christian either. So what?
Yeah, plastic santas and piped music are not the 'Christmas Spirit.' It's not about materialism, and it is overly commercial, but personally, I really like to give people things. It's fun. I tend to get things when I think of someone, rather than when I think of christmas - I've inherited my mother's habit of shopping for Christmas gifts year round. I'm also still honest enough to say I enjoy receiving things. I don't feel I have to - this Christmas I'm flat broke and only my family will get things from me, and I know that it doesn't bother my friends. Do what makes you happy, material or not.
I'm reminded, sappily enough, of an ex-bf telling me that Christmas should be about spending time with people you love more than any others on earth. Works as a definition for me. 'Course, any other holidays can and should be about the same thing. Any excuse for a party!
So I'm going to keep listening to my Christmas music, enjoy the twinkle-lights, hot buttered rum, and christmas tree. I'll even put one up after I move away from home permanently (Hey, that's a good ol' pagan tradition!). Now I'm going to work on webpages and enjoy the moving music of Transiberian orchestra.
I hope everyone who reads this will spend their free time enjoying themselves, having fun with friends and family, and generaly making merry for whatever reason they choose at the time.
Just don't analyze the joy out of things - after all, if nothing else I think we can all be wholeheartedly thankful for the existance of newts.
I'm not divided about Thanksgiving. Yes, I'm sorry that the puritans were bastards. I'm sorry that native americans died of smallpox and other more tangible dangers. I am also profoundly thankful that every thanksgiving I spend four days with my immediate family and our 'family of choice', eating excellent food, relaxing in the most perfectlly comfortable company possible, imbibing excellent wine, and sharing in an amazing variety of jokes, songs, and general foolishness. I propose a toast to the Kellington/Zilk/Molitor-Lee tradition - proudly exchanging a puritan holiday for a gustatory festival of mirth and alchohol for 17 years.
Am I thankful? You bet. Should it be only on thanksgiving? Of course not. But come on, when do you have time during the day to stop and think about that, normally? It's easy to get overwhelmed, so we might as well set aside one day, one day when we can be sure to remember. Just because it's 'official' doesn't mean it's meaningless.
Thankful to whom? To my family, to my friends, to my body for surviving, to the world for being inspiring, and to newts for being newts. To Phillip Pullman's 'dust' concept, for being the semi-theological concept I can most identify with. You don't have to be able to address the note to be thankful. To random, exciting chance. C'est la vie.
And on to Christmas:
I like religious Christmas music best, not because I'm a fan of God, but because it means it. The music's much more moving. Christmas, like thanksgiving, is associated entirely with family and warmth for me, not someone else's ideas of God. I'm not giving up my christmas music just because years back I decided I wasn't Christian. My family still sings together every year (we used to celebrate advent with singing and candles), and none of the rest are really christian either. So what?
Yeah, plastic santas and piped music are not the 'Christmas Spirit.' It's not about materialism, and it is overly commercial, but personally, I really like to give people things. It's fun. I tend to get things when I think of someone, rather than when I think of christmas - I've inherited my mother's habit of shopping for Christmas gifts year round. I'm also still honest enough to say I enjoy receiving things. I don't feel I have to - this Christmas I'm flat broke and only my family will get things from me, and I know that it doesn't bother my friends. Do what makes you happy, material or not.
I'm reminded, sappily enough, of an ex-bf telling me that Christmas should be about spending time with people you love more than any others on earth. Works as a definition for me. 'Course, any other holidays can and should be about the same thing. Any excuse for a party!
So I'm going to keep listening to my Christmas music, enjoy the twinkle-lights, hot buttered rum, and christmas tree. I'll even put one up after I move away from home permanently (Hey, that's a good ol' pagan tradition!). Now I'm going to work on webpages and enjoy the moving music of Transiberian orchestra.
I hope everyone who reads this will spend their free time enjoying themselves, having fun with friends and family, and generaly making merry for whatever reason they choose at the time.
Just don't analyze the joy out of things - after all, if nothing else I think we can all be wholeheartedly thankful for the existance of newts.
