“…We're in deep dookie now!”?

Sheez… How is a decorated tree or a Nativity so offensive to a particular Jew & how is a Menorah such a disturbing object to a particular Christian?

All this trite & ill-willed-chess-piecing-for-little-squares-of- religious-game-board-zeal-estate that has such a beautiful holiday like Christmas being stapled to the wall of shame and disparaged for sake of spiritual differences of opinion, for what? Are we really that shallow as a people that there’s only room on the bus for one credo? Even though Christmas may have been blended with an earlier set of beliefs by one of the oldest churches & in the last hundred years or so has been influenced by the markets & commercialized for sake of trade stability, it doesn’t take away that it is a celebration of Jesus’ birthday. No matter who you believe the man was, his birthday was deemed momentous so long ago & in such deep & meaningful ways, effecting the lives of so many generations, that the resulting tradition is precious & so far beyond worthy of perpetuation…that any nullification as to it’s etiquettes & depictions, that are not about destruction, is simply inappropriate.  Christmas has a home here.

Just as the sacred observances of those who follow the Book of Mormon, the Tanakh or the Torah, the Quar’an, the Vedas, the Apocrypha…for Pete’s sake, the Noble Eightfold Path & the Paramitas, the Tao Te Ching & the teachings of Shinto, to list a few of the many, should know (or have known) places of sanctuary on the Earth.

Is it the word itself…or the interpretations that divide us?  The word…or our own individual paradoxes of self-realization…within the confounding & ofttimes troubling framework of mortal life?

Look…, if I were at a friend’s home while they were recognizing the Shabbat, I would follow their tradition to-the-letter out of respect…and likely come out of the experience with some higher bit of awareness.  Same if I were visiting someone who was recognizing Ramadan, it would not be an issue for me to follow his/her family’s sacred traditions…by abstaining from inappropriate eating &/or, if invited to, share in they’re prayers; …or I’d wish them well in their sacred observances and hit the road.

The birth of Jesus will be celebrated inside & outside of our home this year, as will the resultant holiday of Christmas. It has brought far too much goodwill into the lives of mine & I over the years to be wrong. & if you are Jewish & plan an extended stay in my family home, please bring a menorah & extra yarmulkes so that you & yours can feel at home while you observe Chanukah in our home.
 
I ask that we, as a people, do not weaken celebrations of the spirit & community…for sake of reactionary notions…or, shudder-the-thought, for unfortunate notions of purging all paths for sake of only one worldview. So many roads bleed into one…but certainly not via one path. There are far too many walks for that.

….….

There is a Buddhist, a Jew, a Catholic, a Protestant, a Baptist, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Lakota and a Taoist on a plane. They are all good men, family men of valor, conscience, sacrifice, civility, perseverance, endeavor, humility & goodwill. For no apparent reason
the plane goes down over the Red Sea. There are no survivors. In the end, they all died equal. …Even the Atheist pilot flying the plane…who held deeply in his being a sense of responsibility & mourning for every passenger on his plane as he fought to the very conclusion…its plunge towards inexorableness.

So how is it that my children cannot be warmed of the winter’s frosty solstice, as I was warmed as a child, by songs such as The Little Drummer Boy, & the traditional characters gathered around a manger scene showing honor to they’re sacred hope, & sparkling white and multicolored lights and garland and a bright festooned star on the top of a beautifully lit Christmas tree in the park this early evening?  With folks gathered around her for a mutually shared expression of faith & the season’s fun?  What of the workers who risked their health climbing to hang ornaments on highest boughs, who now have to climb back up and tear it all down because of some short-sighted legislative decision?  What of the baby’s first or second or third Christmas?  What of the Great Grandmother’s last Christmas in the company of her loved ones?  What is the meaning of this ambiguous paradigm shift?

I hope we can all rise above this as a community.

[In a nutshell:  Quit f*cking with people’s joyfulness!]