It’s been one month and one day since my last post, and in that meantime I briefly entertained the thought of making some sort of anniversary post, since I began this blog on December 4, 2005. One year ago I was far more engaged with religiosity and was happy to be so, and now, I’m not. I definitely feel more relaxed now that I, once again, have quit church and the accompanying Bible study, though I miss seeing the people. (Sometimes. Sometimes I go to the parties and the social events and I feel vaguely uncomfortable in the soirée’s unavoidable churchy quality. The formality masked with a ironed-khaki casual veneer, the minced words and carbonated beverages.)

Last night Steve said I should blog more and he’s right, perhaps, but all the religion-related stuff I want to blog about I can’t because it’s all about actual people and actual people’s behaviour. I don’t have much to say in the ethereal academic realm, in the esoteric theoretical realm. It’s all about the stupid things that stupid people do (and the not so stupid, they’re not all stupid) and I don’t really want to throw that up on the internets for all to see. It’s not fair or ethical. (See, the non-religious have ethics too, believe it or not.)

Steve also said I should blog about stuff other than religiony things and again he might be right.

Regardless, I suppose today, scant days before Christmas, I’ll reflect a bit on that holiday. I’m actually considering going to church this Sunday for two reasons — to hand out some cards and sing the relevant songs. Singing is basically the only part of church I actually like. I like singing so much that I can enjoy singing pretty much any songs regardless of their style or content, though in the latter case I suppose it’s not as true. I do get worn down by all the androcentric language pervasive in most Christian musical worship, but since I’m not going regularly I guess I can handle it.

(That reminds me — props to Bonnie & Dylan, old Bible school friends whom I visited earlier this month, for keeping their song choices gender-neutral for the meeting of their church plant, which meets at their house, when I was in town. That was very thoughtful.)

Anyhow, I love Christmas, and even, I think, the religious aspects. I mean, to me the birth of every baby is a miracle so it’s hard not to drum up wonderous feelings when presented with the nativity tale. My favourite Christmas songs are all religious ones (”O Holy Night,” “What Child is This?”), and as I said, church seems far more palatable at Christmas time.

I like buying/making presents for my family and close friends; I like eating chocolate; I like spending time with friends who are back in town for the holidays, as I did last night. I love the snow, the winter night skies, and driving home from church on Christmas Eve. When we get home we’ll eat too-rich foods and open presents, ’cause we’re German and that’s the way we do things. Then we’ll sleep in on Christmas morning and open our stockings around noon, eat some chocolates for breakfast and get ready for a fancy meal later in the day.

You can’t go wrong with this stuff.

If you’re reading this, I wish you only the best things for the holidays. For real.

xo

This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 2:38 pm and is filed under holidays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.