Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas 2012




Here it is Christmas day!
I believe a leading cause to general unhappiness is lack of appreciation for what things really mean.  Just recently we celebrated Christmas eveat my in laws house, and they are down sizing.  Let me tell you exactly what this means.  My father in law is 80 and is getting a bit morbid about his remaining time on earth.  So he announced that they were selling their rural house In January.  Sometime afterwards, he stated “Anyone want any of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books?”  This is like offering a mouse cheese! One  caught my eye and I began to read. I ran across an interesting statement that said:

Cynics know the price of everything and the value of nothing!

Our family tree this year: a tradition


I have often told people, jokingly, that I was a bit of a cynic.  Maybe I should watch my words in the future!  I wanted to start a discussion on traditions and gave it some thought but didn’t commit to writing until recently.  I thought of how culture plays a large role in tradition.   Just like processed lunch meat or sausage: everyone loves it, but no one wants to really know what is in it!  The idea of having a winter festival comes from long traditions seeped in paganism.
Any student of history can attest to December 21st as being the winter solstice and what followed in most cultures.  Romans celebrated a couple of winter festivals like Saturnalia and Juvenilia.  Saturn was the tutor of Dionysius  the Greek god of wine (and partying)  Saturn was a lush and often depicted having a white beard and rosy red cheeks . . . oh well I guess you get the point!  Juvenilia was a celebration of children (You guessed it… where we get the word Juvenile from).  From what I also understand the Norse celebrated a season of Yule and cut down a very large log to burn during their festival as well.  Remember:  No one wants to really know what’s in sausage or lunch meat!
 After getting everyone down, (please don’t say ‘that’s a lot of bologna!’) let me ask this rhetorical question: was it not a stroke of genius to take the shortest day of the year to celebrate the birth of the greatest light mankind has ever known?   

  • A day so powerful with Jesus birth that it has permanently split time in half! (BC and AD)

  • A man who never raised an army but has made enemies stack arms and serve him!

  • A man who commanded nature by walking on water and saying to the storm “peace be still”?

Regardless of circumstances men and women will always find a way to sin! And the righteous will always find a way to praise God!  It is best  to take a quiet moment to reflect on this simple truth: In a world filled with unhappiness, loneliness and  turmoil, we can find the great light and the prince of Peace!

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