(no subject)
Dec. 8th, 2003 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
violachicEarlier today, I came upon this touching post made yesterday by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
polyfrog. I was pretty cranky, so I managed to make kind of a selfish little comment. But once I was done feeling sorry for myself for the day, I started thinking more about what he said. And I came up with a bunch of scrambled ideas that I'm going to attempt to make coherent.
I think, even if you don't identify yourself as a Christian it doesn't mean you can't think Jesus was a cool guy (or Yeshua, as Erik puts it, which is the Hebrew translation to the Latinized "Jesus"). I like the idea that there may be parts of different religions that speak to someone, even if they don't cling to that particular faith. There's a lot of philosophies that come from different faiths that can be applied to other faiths, or even to no faith at all.
Hrm. I think that makes sense.
Also, different aspects of a religion or a philosophy may mean different things to different people, hold a certain symbolism. A very blatant example of that is how Christianity adopted many aspects of certain earth-based religions- mostly Celtic-related, as far as I can tell- into their own practices; the very habit of putting up and decorating a pine tree is an ancient sign of eternal life through the winter, and many things we attribute to the Easter holiday are ancient symbols for new life- think about dyeing eggs every year, and those stupid marshmallow peeps that show up in baskets and get exploded in microwaves every Easter Sunday. But anyway. More on that to come later.
I'm hoping there's a semblance of segue between thoughts here, but I'm not promising anything. If you are missing the connection, rest assured that there is one in my brain.
Hope.
I've been loathe to find a lot of hope recently. That's probably overly melodromatic and possibly even selfish on my part. Maybe I'm not the only one I know who feels this way. In fact, I'm fairly certain of that.
Its been a rough year. I can't say its been a bad year, but its been a rough one. While there has been a lot of crappy stuff, I can see there's been quite a lot of growth coming out of it all. Not just for me, but for a lot of people. On one hand, I'm personally more conflicted about some things than I ever dreamed I'd ever have to be. There have been some things I never thought I'd have to face or deal with. I don't like feeling so conflicted, and that seems to exacerbate matters. On the other hand, though, when I look through the fog of heartache and depression, I can see how much more solidified I am in who I am, and what I stand for, and all that good stuff. I'm more me than I ever have been, because I've been forced to become it. What's important to me is clearer than ever.
Now, I've made that little story totally about myself. But I think that's maybe what hope is? Dealing with the shit because you know, at the end of it all, there may be a chance for change, or for growth, or- dare I say it?- redemption of some kind.
Did you ever notice how some really religious people, at Christmas, seem to bring up Easter a lot? I don't mean dye-your-eggs-and-eat-your-jelly-beans (please, keep the licorice ones away from me) Easter. I mean nail-him-to-the-tree-and-wait-till-Sunday Easter. Even one of my favorite Christmas songs references it in the first verse: I wonder as I wander out under the sky, How Jesus, the Savior, did come for to die. For poor, ornery people like you and like I.I wonder as I wander out under the sky..
Okay, bear with me, I'm not preaching, I promise.
Anyway... yeah. What's up with that? This is about new life and birth and joy and Ho-Ho-Ho and all that. Who wants to hear about some middle-aged hippie being made into a martyr for a bunch of liberals? No, I'm not talking about John Lennon, although I've heard some far-fetched theories on similarities. I guess it has to do with hope. I mean, sure, Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, but for those who ascribe to the Christian faith, its not the birth in itself that presents the hope. Yeah, so babies are born, they're cute, they poop, they drool, they gurgle. But if it hadn't been for the events of the Easter story, there would be no hope involved. After all, it wasn't in Jesus' being born that gave his followers hope, it was in his dying and (in my humble opinion, most importantly) his ressurection that did. The official Church calendar ends at the end of the Easter season, and the "birthday of the church" is often thought of as Pentecost, which occurs several weeks after Easter. Then, the church year starts anew. And in six more months, you have Christmas again.
By the way, if you're still following me, I'd like to take this moment to point out that I believe the last Matrix movie was entitled Revolutions, and not Revolution for this very reason. If you don't get what I mean, step into my office later and we'll discuss it.
/tangent
Moving on.... or as my mother would say, onward and upward...
Okay. So, to kind of tie it all together.
We don't know exactly when the birth of Jesus occured. Heck, scholars can't even agree on the year; some literalists and fundamentalists insist it must be Year 0, but there are anthropologists and such who suggest there may be as much as a four or five year variance- it could be what we know as 5 BC, or even what we call 5 AD. So how could be possibly pin an exact date on it, especially since the Gregorian Calendar we know now didn't come into existence for at least another thousand years. But for some reason, the Christmas celebration as we know it emerged to settle itself in winter. Specifically, December 25th, only four days after the Winter Solstice. Coincidence? I think not.
I actually taught senior high Sunday School a week and a half ago for the first time this year (I really love being in charge of the warping of young minds). Since it was the first Sunday in Advent, and since I knew the other teachers probably wouldn't touch on Hannukah or anything, I decided I'd make it a lesson on the Festivals of Light. We talked about Advent, but we also talked about Hannukah, the Winter Solstice, and (new this year!) Diwali. All of them are festivals that center around celebration of light, in the middle of the darkest times of year.
What does this show us?
Its very simple.
During the darkest parts of the year, since ancient times, people have been searching for a way to make it brighter. You know, that proverbial light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel. Humankind is desperate to find light in the darkness. Absolutely desperate. Whether physically or metaphorically (those of you who suffer from SAD will know especially that this is the truth). So we light candles and put up strings of lights and sparkly tinsel and bring in evergreen trees and sing and chant and give prettily wrapped gifts and wait impatiently till March.
And the light shining in the darkness is hope.
polyfrog. I was pretty cranky, so I managed to make kind of a selfish little comment. But once I was done feeling sorry for myself for the day, I started thinking more about what he said. And I came up with a bunch of scrambled ideas that I'm going to attempt to make coherent.I think, even if you don't identify yourself as a Christian it doesn't mean you can't think Jesus was a cool guy (or Yeshua, as Erik puts it, which is the Hebrew translation to the Latinized "Jesus"). I like the idea that there may be parts of different religions that speak to someone, even if they don't cling to that particular faith. There's a lot of philosophies that come from different faiths that can be applied to other faiths, or even to no faith at all.
Hrm. I think that makes sense.
Also, different aspects of a religion or a philosophy may mean different things to different people, hold a certain symbolism. A very blatant example of that is how Christianity adopted many aspects of certain earth-based religions- mostly Celtic-related, as far as I can tell- into their own practices; the very habit of putting up and decorating a pine tree is an ancient sign of eternal life through the winter, and many things we attribute to the Easter holiday are ancient symbols for new life- think about dyeing eggs every year, and those stupid marshmallow peeps that show up in baskets and get exploded in microwaves every Easter Sunday. But anyway. More on that to come later.
I'm hoping there's a semblance of segue between thoughts here, but I'm not promising anything. If you are missing the connection, rest assured that there is one in my brain.
Hope.
I've been loathe to find a lot of hope recently. That's probably overly melodromatic and possibly even selfish on my part. Maybe I'm not the only one I know who feels this way. In fact, I'm fairly certain of that.
Its been a rough year. I can't say its been a bad year, but its been a rough one. While there has been a lot of crappy stuff, I can see there's been quite a lot of growth coming out of it all. Not just for me, but for a lot of people. On one hand, I'm personally more conflicted about some things than I ever dreamed I'd ever have to be. There have been some things I never thought I'd have to face or deal with. I don't like feeling so conflicted, and that seems to exacerbate matters. On the other hand, though, when I look through the fog of heartache and depression, I can see how much more solidified I am in who I am, and what I stand for, and all that good stuff. I'm more me than I ever have been, because I've been forced to become it. What's important to me is clearer than ever.
Now, I've made that little story totally about myself. But I think that's maybe what hope is? Dealing with the shit because you know, at the end of it all, there may be a chance for change, or for growth, or- dare I say it?- redemption of some kind.
Did you ever notice how some really religious people, at Christmas, seem to bring up Easter a lot? I don't mean dye-your-eggs-and-eat-your-jelly-beans (please, keep the licorice ones away from me) Easter. I mean nail-him-to-the-tree-and-wait-till-Sunday Easter. Even one of my favorite Christmas songs references it in the first verse: I wonder as I wander out under the sky, How Jesus, the Savior, did come for to die. For poor, ornery people like you and like I.I wonder as I wander out under the sky..
Okay, bear with me, I'm not preaching, I promise.
Anyway... yeah. What's up with that? This is about new life and birth and joy and Ho-Ho-Ho and all that. Who wants to hear about some middle-aged hippie being made into a martyr for a bunch of liberals? No, I'm not talking about John Lennon, although I've heard some far-fetched theories on similarities. I guess it has to do with hope. I mean, sure, Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, but for those who ascribe to the Christian faith, its not the birth in itself that presents the hope. Yeah, so babies are born, they're cute, they poop, they drool, they gurgle. But if it hadn't been for the events of the Easter story, there would be no hope involved. After all, it wasn't in Jesus' being born that gave his followers hope, it was in his dying and (in my humble opinion, most importantly) his ressurection that did. The official Church calendar ends at the end of the Easter season, and the "birthday of the church" is often thought of as Pentecost, which occurs several weeks after Easter. Then, the church year starts anew. And in six more months, you have Christmas again.
By the way, if you're still following me, I'd like to take this moment to point out that I believe the last Matrix movie was entitled Revolutions, and not Revolution for this very reason. If you don't get what I mean, step into my office later and we'll discuss it.
/tangent
Moving on.... or as my mother would say, onward and upward...
Okay. So, to kind of tie it all together.
We don't know exactly when the birth of Jesus occured. Heck, scholars can't even agree on the year; some literalists and fundamentalists insist it must be Year 0, but there are anthropologists and such who suggest there may be as much as a four or five year variance- it could be what we know as 5 BC, or even what we call 5 AD. So how could be possibly pin an exact date on it, especially since the Gregorian Calendar we know now didn't come into existence for at least another thousand years. But for some reason, the Christmas celebration as we know it emerged to settle itself in winter. Specifically, December 25th, only four days after the Winter Solstice. Coincidence? I think not.
I actually taught senior high Sunday School a week and a half ago for the first time this year (I really love being in charge of the warping of young minds). Since it was the first Sunday in Advent, and since I knew the other teachers probably wouldn't touch on Hannukah or anything, I decided I'd make it a lesson on the Festivals of Light. We talked about Advent, but we also talked about Hannukah, the Winter Solstice, and (new this year!) Diwali. All of them are festivals that center around celebration of light, in the middle of the darkest times of year.
What does this show us?
Its very simple.
During the darkest parts of the year, since ancient times, people have been searching for a way to make it brighter. You know, that proverbial light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel. Humankind is desperate to find light in the darkness. Absolutely desperate. Whether physically or metaphorically (those of you who suffer from SAD will know especially that this is the truth). So we light candles and put up strings of lights and sparkly tinsel and bring in evergreen trees and sing and chant and give prettily wrapped gifts and wait impatiently till March.
And the light shining in the darkness is hope.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-12-08 10:29 pm (UTC)Very interesting post, btw. Thank you!
no subject
Date: 2003-12-08 10:58 pm (UTC)In the second Matrix, in the scene with the Architecht, they talked about how the Matrix had already been reloaded six times, and this was the seventh time it was doing basically the same thing. So although using the term Revolutions in the title for the third implies, well, a revolution of political and even warfare kinds. But I also think it implies the turning of wheels or cogs or something, the making of a circle that goes around and around. Which is one reason why the ending of the movie was as ambiguous as it was. It left a whole lot open to interpretation and speculation, and while you got this really good feeling that Neo had done something new and extraordinary (albeit very necessary), there was this feeling like, there has to be something more. And the conversation between the Oracle and the Architect gave me the impression that they knew it was just a matter of time before the whole thing would be put in motion again.
I don't know. Maybe I read too much Jewish literature. Heh.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 06:15 am (UTC)so, are you and marta et al. gonna come to a Very Jewish Christmas?
no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 07:38 am (UTC)both :) and :(
no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 12:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 08:10 am (UTC)I only have one thing to say about this.
Buddy Christ.
;D
no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 12:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 04:31 pm (UTC)Have a happy holidays and all :)
no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 07:35 pm (UTC)p.s.
Date: 2003-12-10 10:11 pm (UTC)Re: p.s.
Date: 2003-12-13 02:27 pm (UTC)