Christmas is ambivalent for many people. The holidays bring music and decorations that are meant to lift spirits, yet it's often reported that depression spikes upward at this time of year as well. I personally like the secular Christmas carols a lot, but have a harder time listening to some of the more religious ones.
I think that we who doubt the scriptural story of Christmas are challenged by this time of year because we see others attributing joy to a source we cannot credit.
I want to believe in peace and decency and the power of a happy heart, and so it troubles me that I see people expressing these things while ascribing to them an origin I find dubious. Alienated from the cause of their joy, I ask whether my faith in joy itself is therefore in doubt.
Then, too, it is easy to tread the path of cynicism and ask, "If peace and generosity and love of one's fellow man are so important to remember, why not remember them all year long, instead of just for the space of a month between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day?"
Nor is the task of accepting holiday cheer made any easier by buffoons in the media who try to fire up their listeners with stories about the "War on Christmas," full of outrage that department store chains ask their greeters to say "Happy Holidays" instead of extolling the specifically Christian message that the righteous desire to hear.
But the existence of pettiness and hypocrisy should never be allowed to tarnish that which is real and beautiful. If so many people have larger hearts at this time of year, that is an undeniably good thing, which can never be lessened by the fact that a few of them also have smaller minds than we'd wish.
When large numbers of people celebrate life, sing of hope, and give sanctity to joy, then we should bow our heads with them in appreciation, even if we believe differently than they do.
People are ugly and mean and vindictive year-round. The fact that some of them can be better during the Christmas season, and the fact that most can express wishes for a better world, should give us cause for boundless gratitude.
Thank you, goddess, for all occasions which lift hearts and encourage wonder.
Merry Christmas to all.
Lovingly yours,
A devotee
17 comments:
Whatever reason exists on any particular day for me to tip my glass in celebration, I'm down!
Happy Kwaanza!
What kind of martini does one make for Kwaanza?
Simple.
A Sweet Potato Pie martini.
Just give me a well-stocked bar and a little time to play mixologist and it would be total yum.
Oh, and I think I spelled Kwanzaa incorrectly.
Oops!
....shlurp..
Can you actually make a martini with butter and brown sugar? Because a sweet potato isn't a sweet potato without lots of butter and brown sugar.
Mmmm.
You can do a granulated brown sugar rim, mixed with graham cracker for texture. Keep it stuck to the glassware with lemon juice.
As for the butter, I believe a substitution of Bailey's or Bailey's Caramel could be made.
It would be yum.
I'm not sure what else would go in it yet. I would have to play.
I know they actually make a pumpkin pie-flavoured vodka. I've had it. I could throw that in. It's a similar flavour profile.
I would maybe have to just add a candied yam garnish of some sort, with some merengue, how do you spell merengue?
I think I'm spelling it like the sexy Latin dance, not the egg white stuff.
I would have to get creative with this one, but the end result would be yum and that is all that matters.
Maybe next year I'll have a Kwanzaa party. That will give me all year to work on the recipe.
You're invited.
aFZSUd;/;jiuik,m
Sorry about that. I had to wipe the drool from my keyboard.
Stardate -314000.93:
You are my very first comment of the new year.
I'm glad it's you, Devo, because I am so very VERY fucking glad that you somehow popped-up into my life this year.
Both myself and my bra-strap thank you for all that you do.
And may your '2009' be both prosperous and logical.
Also, you better put on your party dress, Your Devo-ness, because I think that a good New Year's resolution for us, is for me to find a Writer's Group, and for you...
....to dance.
On my bra-strap,
of course.
xo
You know, despite my devotion to and adoration of the goddess of love, I remain agnostic at heart. So it's difficult for me to say I truly believe that everything happens for a reason.
But some things do make me feel like they've happened for a reason, and the process by which I met you is totally one of those things. It was a long and weird and convoluted chain of events and decisions and pure happenstance that somehow ended up at just the right place.
And I feel very privileged that you'd make my blog your first stopping place of the year.
So thanks, and thanks also for the resolution suggestion. I'd told myself that I was only going to make one resolution this year, which was to get an agent for my books. But I may have to reconsider and add in a second.
Especially if bra-strap dancing counts.
: )
Not that you can't dance on my bra-strap all you'd like, Devo-licious...
...because you can.
But, no, it won't 'count.'
You have to actually get out there and dance. Without a care in the world as to what you look like.
You just have to be smiling and having fun.
But, don't force it. Let the mood strike you at some point this year on it's own, and when it does just....dance.
You'll be at a bar, you'll hear a song, (Maybe 'Whip It,' will come on the jukebox...) and you will want to dance and you will not let yourself NOT dance, you will instead just ...dance.
Yay!
And it doesn't have to be a resolution, per se.
It could just be something you want to try this year.
And, Devo, I totally think we met for a reason too.
My life is different with you in it.
I think of you often.
I'll keep an eye out for danceable moments, for sure. If nothing else, I believe there's a cruise-ship vacation in my future, although that won't be until next year. And what the hell else are you supposed to do on a cruise ship at night besides drink and dance?
(I'm sure there's tons of stuff, but I've never been.)
The "Rock Band" video game arrived at my place for Christmas, by the way, and I've been playing drums on it. So there's every reason to hope that I'll actually have acquired some sense of rhythm by the time that danceable moment shows up.
Wish me luck one of those times when you're thinking of me!
You pop into my mind more than occasionally as well ...
: )
Love,
Devo
I am so jealous of your future Love Boat activities.
I used to have a secret crush on Gopher when I was little.
But, as I aged, I actually had a thing for the red-headed doctor dude.
I thought he'd be GREAT in bed.
I guess what I'm trying to say is...
...I wanna go on a cruise and sail he open sea and maybe get laid by the ship's doctor, if I'm lucky, and have my Love Boat moment.
I do. I do. I do.
I loved the Love Boat. And Fantasy Island too.
They just don't make them like that any more.
Although the Fantasy Island remake with Malcolm McDowell a few years back was actually pretty interesting. (I never saw the Love Boat remake.)
I have SUCH the thing for Ricardo Montalban.
Not only was he Mr. Roarke, the ringmaster of fantasy fulfillment on a remote tropical island, but he was also Khan.
I think I may have to rent that Star Trek on my next freebie for a non-new release at Blockbuster.
It's been too long.
And apparently, my retro orgy fantasy would be Gopher, the Love Boat Dr., and Ricardo Montalban.
I'll have to give Tattoo a call to set that up...
Didn't he go into porn?
Before we lost the little guy anyway...R.I.P.
Oh, and I've never seen the re-makes. They re-made those?
I say screw bringin' back 90210, it sucks. Bring back the Love Boat, dude.
You can have guest stars like Ashton Kutcher who punks all the other guest stars like Joey from friends and Neil Patrick Harris and Bebe Neuwirth and Vince Neil and there are just SO many possibilities.
It would be great.
Also:
Strumpet is currently about to open a fresh pack of wasabi soy almonds.
Jealous?
Technically, the 1998 Love Boat series was a sequel with different characters, not a remake, but the Fantasy Island was a new, reimagined version of the show. It had some overtly supernatural elements instead of just the implications that were there in the original, and there were strong indications that the staff of the island consisted of people who'd been sent there as some kind of limbo or purgatory. It wasn't great, but it was weird enough that I wish it had run longer, just to see where it would go.
Even Malcolm McDowell can't hold a candle to Mr. Montalban, though.
Wrath of Khan is so totally my favorite Star Trek movie.
And yes, for the record, I'm jealous of your nuts.
; )
I bought these little '100 Calorie Pack' Blue Diamond almonds, but they are just plain-flavoured.
I don't think these packs even come in our fave flavour-option.
I wonder if it is possible for them to make them in the wasabi soy flavour.
I would buy them by the boxload and have a 100 cal snack of wasabi almonds every single day.
They would stay in my pocket until the craving hit so strong and I absolutely needed my fix.
Maybe I should write the Blue Diamond company a letter.
No, I just don't have the time.
I am going to Blockbuster tomorrow. I have to remember to get Khan as my freebie choice.
Plus, they sell wasabi soy almonds there.
They should sell them everywhere.
They should.
There are very few things that couldn't be improved with some wasabi soy almonds.
I think I need to buy a case of them.
Just so I can start improving things on a more consistent basis.
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