Religion Holidays And Great Expectations

You may be offended – read at your own risk

When I was at the store the other day my favorite Wally World cashier asked if I was going to see family over the holiday. I said no and she gave me this pity speech then ended it with, “Well, have a good holiday anyway.” Would she have felt better for herself or for me had I said I have tons of family and we happen to celebrate this holiday and we’re all going to get together for some tradition that’s been in our family since before I was born? I don’t know but people seem to expect family deficient people to be depressed around the holidays. I am actually enriched without my family and I don’t celebrate the holidays so Thursday will be just another depression filled day…no holiday required. I don’t celebrate the holidays and I have no attachment to them, no emotional dips, highs or lows. It’s another day on my calendar, why can’t other people accept that? Why must people push their holiday oriented mindset on me? I suppose for the same reason I hang onto old messages (true ones and false ones). It’s just the way they grew up but damn if it’s not irritating and offensive when people send me a holiday card knowing full well that I don’t celebrate the holidays.

I know, I know, they’re doing it because they want me to know they care. I know, I know I should see their actions as kindness not an offense. Well send a Rabbi a holiday card based on your personal beliefs and see if he refrains from offering up prayers to have every Gentile stricken with blindness. Why can’t ya just send holiday cards to people who want them and stop fussing about people who don’t? On the other hand – I think it is just stupid that certain Christmas organizations aren’t accepting certain toys with an obvious Christian leaning when Christmas is supposedly based on Christianity. I really think that the parent of a Jewish child or a child of Islam, Hindi, Buddhism and other religions that traditionally don’t celebrate Christmas….if they sign up for Christmas help there should be no offense taken if they receive a Bible or a statue of our Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t celebrate the holiday but it seems obvious to me that if you don’t believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah then why would you sign up for assistance to get toys on a holiday that claims to be for him? I don’t get it but hey, some organizations are refusing toys and items that have an obvious Christian slant to them. It’s your holiday, crazy as it has become, it is your holiday so do as you please just don’t try and involve me. My point is, when it comes to holidays there are some religions that people are very careful not to offend and go so far as to change their own false beliefs in order to not offend those who have invited themselves to a banquet of lies. I don’t believe as you do but I’m going to request toys so please don’t offend me with said toys. It’s Insanity!

So my point is, when it comes those religions people will take extra care to not offend by offering holiday cheer. Now I’m not saying keep your cheer in your home. I’m saying don’t send it to my home or to my email box. Is that so hard? I’m saying that perhaps some people really won’t be depressed on the holidays because they have no attachment to them at all. In a world that makes an exception for every little thing, valid or not, why is it so hard to simply not send your friends who don’t celebrate the holidays a card or a gift? Why is it so hard to not respect the beliefs of others? I’m not saying you should be a closet Christmas celebrator. I’m saying don’t mail me anything; don’t ask me to celebrate with you. Why is that so hard? Why is that so offensive to others for me to say, no thank you I don’t celebrate the holidays? If the holidays are about giving then why is it so much about you and not about giving me the right to say no thank you I’ll sit out on this one? Hey, it’s your holiday. It’s your holiday based on giving so is it beyond reasonable to request that I be given the courtesy of distance?

I do believe that the vast majority of the holidays are wrong but at this point I do not belong to any religious group at all. The religions my family ascribed to were many, something I lump together as confused mysticism. Black magic and Baptist teachings mixed with a bit of Catholicism and a touch of Apostolic frenzy makes for one beautiful Sunday at Grammy’s house. It got to the point that my grandmother only allowed “practices” in the lower level of the house because she didn’t want to hear my Apostolic Aunt try and save my alcoholic aunt with Christian words mixed with incense and special prayers. Yeah, you wonder why I have DID. There I am sitting in my little dress and shoes while Auntie Apostolic tries to save Auntie Alchi via mystical Christianity. That is not dysfunction that is straight up crazy. My mother did not practice black magic or any form of divination. But oh I have such fond memories of the Catholic Church. Those were early on. She stopped going there when I was quite young but then she traveled to the Baptist church, then a short stop to check out apostolic teachings, an even shorter stop at the Methodist Church. She was a church hopper of sorts.

After a bit of religious chaos my grandmother had a sign on her door that said, “Please leave religion outside. You are welcome but your religion is not.” Perhaps she didn’t realize that Wicca is a religion and so are its very, very dangerous rituals. I say dangerous not because I think they sacrifice people but because of the demonic aspect of it. It’s not something I’m willing to play with. I’m also not willing to play with choices, runes, Ouija boards or other items used in pagan practices. I do not consider them harmless. It is quite clear to me that its wrong and I stay as far away from it as possible.

I do not share the same distaste for Christianity as a whole like I do for all mysticisms but I do attribute most holidays to non-Christian origins. Thanksgiving is not one that claims to be of religious origin. I just happen to think it’s quite cruel and too many people drink way too much then get behind the wheel and kill people. A day of nation wide gluttony and increased drunk driving isn’t something I’m willing to raise my fork to. If others don’t feel this way then so be it. I promise NOT to send you an e-card with crashed cars and crying families, dead Indians and their crying children stuffed on plantations. I promise not to call you and wish you a happy day upon land stolen if you promise not to tell me to have a happy holiday cause I will bring up the true origins and it will not be pretty. Somehow that turkey will not taste so good. Illusions and family traditions will not mean so much to you with each passing year you lift your fork to the third Thursday in November. It’s your choice, we can exchange cards if ya wanna. It is much easier to celebrate an illusion than to talk about the truth. Being polite has gotten me nowhere so sometimes I have to be offensively truthful. My distaste for holidays has nothing to do with my family but the origins of those holidays as well as current celebrations leading to the harm of innocent people. My major problem with holidays is that God’s name is attached to things that he would have nothing at all to do with.

Destiny

written 11-17-06  5am EST