I’ve got the knack

No, not that one.

I don't enjoy stirring things up, but I seem to have the uncanny ability to do so.

Okay, I lied. I do kinda dig stirring things up. I love making people think, I love pushing the envelope, and I love to get people to explore their own thoughts about issues, maybe question a long-held belief. When I posted my entry about how Christmas is based upon a pagan holiday, and not really Jeebus's birthday, on Facebook, my friend Doug wrote that I was brave. Haha! I don't know about brave, but it certainly generated some interesting responses. Rather than making another entry about this, I left a fairly long comment on yesterday's entry. Feel free to check it out. I feel very strongly that everyone has the right to believe what they want or to not believe what they want.

I have taken another step in my Rock Band journey (I was proud of myself for not going through too bad of a withdrawal while on vacation). Note that I have bescarved the mic stand, a la Steven Tyler, or maybe Janis Joplin. My friend Greg will be so proud! Since I did that, I had to get back to my vocal band, Dirty Pleasures, and made it to the next level there. I sang "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and was wishing like hell for a cow bell! I will order one. Then I switched back to my favorite, my guitar band Gravitas, and did a couple of songs there. "Flirting With Disaster" was surprisingly fun considering that I'm not a big fan of Southern rock, but I guess I channeled my inner Georgia peach. I did live there for a while, so I've got my peach cred. Oh, and if you look in the background, you'll see a cabinet full of penguins. I have a few.

I should also mention that I’m not getting Christmas cards out this year. A week away really put a crimp into things, and I’m just not going to fret about not getting them out this year. I appreciate any cards I’ve gotten from some of you, and rest assured that if you don’t get one from me this year, I haven’t forgotten about you, and I still love you!

Work it on out, baby!

I thought I was pretty clear in my entry yesterday, but I think I need to clarify a little bit.

I don't hate Christmas. I celebrate Christmas. I have fun at Christmas with my family. I often say, "Merry Christmas." I'm not trying to force anyone to celebrate Christmas in any way other than which they already do. My issue is with the constant idiocy about the "war on Christmas," and about how it's all about religious persecution against Christians. That is simply not taking place, and my point is that Christmas did not begin as a Christian holiday, so don't try to create the fallacy of some "war on Christmas" as a persecution against Christians. If you look at the history of the holiday, it's a ludicrous argument. People were celebrating this holiday for thousands of years before Christianity existed. Christians really don't have exclusive rights on it. :)

As my friend Paul and others have pointed out, you don't have to be a Christian to celebrate Christmas. See previous entry for the full explanation.

Oh, and that reminds me of something I read on Facebook about gay marriage. If marriage is a religious institution, why is it perfectly okay and legal for atheists to get married? Hmm? Riddle me that, Batman! You can keep talking till you're blue in the face about it being a religious institution...although I try to see most things from both sides, try to understand the opposition, I have no problem in this case saying that you are wrong. It is a civil institution. Gay marriage is a civil rights issue, not a religious issue. It's past time for people to wrap their little brains around that and give every citizen the rights to which they are entitled. I find it shameful that we are still debating this. I am also confident that it will soon be the law of the land.

But I digress. Change of subject.

Remember me writing about my recent health screening, and how I was going to start working out again? Yeah...I kinda procrastinated about that. Well, you know, going on vacation, the holidays coming up...ummm...okay, I was just lazy. No excuses. I called on Monday and got registered with the program and set my two goals.

First is strength training. I want to get more toned, I want to get stronger, and with some loss in bone density, I need to work on improving that little problem. I want to do some treadmill work and really focus on weights...but I just generally need to get off my lazy ass and DO something! I got busy today--if not quite jiggy wit' it--and did a little on the treadmill, did some weights, and did some crunches on the Ab thing. Man, I have really lost strength and tone and I'm looking forward to getting some of that back!

My second goal concerns skipping meals. I can easily go all day long without eating anything until dinner, which is usually late, around 9 PM. That's a long time without eating, but I've always been that way and it doesn't really bother me. However, I know that's not a good thing. I know that it fucks with your metabolism, and your body goes into a sort of "survivor" mode. I don't overeat at dinner to compensate, but that's still a long time without eating and can do more harm than good. So I'm starting to eat a little something in the morning, whether it's a yogurt, some cottage cheese, or a grapefruit like I had this morning. I have a feeling that the combination of kick-starting my metabolism by actually eating more and starting to work out might make me lose a pound or two.

Anyhoo, I can tell you that it felt really good to get out there and get started. I put on the Ting Tings and that was fun and upbeat and got me moving! ♪♫ That's not my name! That's not my name! ♪♫

I also want to thank Kyle over at Out Left for giving me a blog award, the Circle of Friends. I met Kyle through some other blogging friends, and we think alike on so many things! We really do have a little "circle" (I could easily make a naughty joke right here, but I won't be a jerk) going on, and it's a pleasure to know not just Kyle and the gang, but all of my fellow bloggers and readers. As I always do with these awards, if you're reading, you're in the circle, so feel free to snag the award for yourself.

The Reason

This entry has been percolating for a while now, since I started seeing Christmas decorations in the stores before fucking Halloween.

I'm not a Scrooge, I enjoy being around family and friends during this time, and who doesn't like presents? I love getting presents! Oh, and giving them is fun, too. Haha. However, I grow weary of the rampant commercialism, I don't like sappy Christmas music, and don't even get me started on the constant, annoying Christmas-themed commercials! ("More seasons greetings to you all from Menard's!" GAAHHHH! Someone shoot me!)

What is really rankling me, though, is the continued brouhaha about the "war on Christmas." Just. Shut. Up. There is no "war on Christmas"—it’s merely a bunch of whining fundamentalists who seem to feel that they have bragging rights about Christmas being a Christian holiday. As usual, anyone who doesn't believe the way they do is not only going to hell, they're apparently going there as a passenger in Santa's sleigh. And naturally, everyone is out to get them, and trying to stop others from celebrating Christmas as a Christian holiday. Hey, celebrate however you want to! Bake Jesus a birthday cake! Sing happy birthday to him! Knock yourself out!

There's just one problem with that, though. Christmas is not a Christian holiday, and Jesus wasn't born on December 25.

Winter solstice celebrations predate Christianity by many years, and took many different forms in different cultures, all celebrating the lengthening days and the return of the sun. (The sun…get it? The son?) The Roman winter celebration of Saturnalia is where the tradition of gift-giving began; popular Christmas symbols and traditions such as evergreen trees and branches (the Asherah cult), mistletoe and holly (Norse mythology and Druid rituals), and the Yule log (more Norse mythology) began in pre-Christian Europe. The early Catholic church was having a hard time getting people to give up their pagan holidays and embrace Christianity (go figure), so they decided to co-opt most of the pagan celebrations and hope people wouldn't notice. Such tricksters!

As for December 25, it was the last day of Saturnalia, and it was also the birth date of Mithras, the Persian sun god. In 350, Pope Julius I decided that Christ's birth celebration would take place on December 25, again hoping that everyone would fall in line and sort of get used to the Christian thing while they were singing "Happy birthday, dear Mithras." Most historians put the birth of Christ somewhere in midsummer.

Christianity also doesn't have the market cornered on the virgin birth thing, and they weren't the first to come up with it. Such legends go back to ancient Egypt with Horus the Younger, and again with Mithras. Who was also apparently said to have "healed the sick, made the blind see and the lame walk, cast out devils, and raised the dead." Sound familiar? For an eye-opening read, I recommend this great article by Tom Flynn. (Thanks to Darren for the link.)

I'm not saying that Christmas should be banned; quite the contrary. I say enjoy your time with family and friends, appreciate the joy of giving, and celebrate the fun of the season. I know that I will! If you choose to recognize it as the birth of Christ, that is certainly your prerogative—many in my family do, and everyone should certainly feel free to celebrate in their own way. But pardon me if I disagree with you when you tell me that "Jesus is the reason for the season," because that is not the case. Not at all.

Simple reasoning—and research—shows me that that is the truth of the matter.