It's Christmas - Don't make it an Issue.......

When did Christmas become more of an issue than a Holiday? And why wasn’t I consulted? Because if I had been, I’d have simply told whoever wanted to know what about Christmas pisses me off, that nothing about Christmas pisses me off.


Ha.

You’re surprised aren’t you?

Christmas is a lovely, blessed Holy Day, celebrating the birth of the Christian Messiah. Even if you’re not a Christian, you can be cool with the fact that Jesus was one groovy dude and lifting a glass in his honor is just one way of making merry during the Winter Solstice.

What does, however, jerk my pine branch, are all the souls out there, Christian and Non, who seem to feel the need to make problems where there need be no problems. These include, but are not limited to the following and are in no particular frigging order:



~ Those who, in the last few years have started everything from screaming matches to facebook petitions regarding the whole, “Happy Holidays,” vs. “Merry Christmas,” debate. WTF? Why does anyone care if others behave in an inclusive manner and wish everyone a Happy Holiday? It doesn’t take Christ out of Christmas any more than it takes the menorah out of Chanukah. I am positive, in my heart of hearts, Jesus would say Happy Holidays because he wouldn’t want his Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist, Native American, Pagan and Atheist friends left out of the equation.

~ Those who have screamed or petitioned back that it’s not proper to say, “Merry Christmas,” because of all the people who are not Christian. Let’s get this straight. Christmas is a Christian Holy Day. It has been celebrated on December 25th since the 3rd century. The third century, people. That’s at least as long as all of us presently occupying planet Earth have been around. So, if someone says, “Merry Christmas,” just accept it in the spirit of love which it’s given. My last name is Feldbauer. I’ve gotten a couple of Happy Chanukah’s in my day. I didn’t figure they were cursing my Christianity that they didn’t know about. I just smiled and said, “Happy Chanukah,” back. It aint rocket science.

~ Endless stories of greedy, nasty, horrible Americans who ignore the plight of everyone from starving children in the depths of the most remote regions of Africa to homeless coyotes, trying to eke out a meal of gophers at the base of South Mountain in Phoenix in the face of encroaching developers. Yessssss, there are people who buy ridiculous amounts of crap in hopes of keeping up with the Kardashians. There are those who steal gifts from churches and charities. There are people who are cruel to animals and land developers who would mortgage their own mother’s soul to sell retail space. However, for every negative story, for every act of violence or greed, there are ten incidences of love, kindness, honesty, generosity of heart and spirit. The problem is, we don’t hear about them often enough.

~ The fact that we don’t hear about the love, kindness, honesty, generosity of heart and spirit often enough.



Now, you might ask, what can one do about such things. In this day and age where everyone feels entitled to say exactly what’s on their minds at any given moment, regardless of the consequences of said rant, it would more than likely be pointless to tell the crazy right – or left – wingers to ease back on the holiday hyperbole. There will always be those who stump for their rights simply because they feel they’re being stepped on by, ‘the other side,’ of whatever argument they happen to be in.

There will always be people who are crooked, greedy, mean and deadly. There will always be perky blondes and busty brunettes on the six o’clock news to give us the lowdown on each and every one of them.

We – that’s you and me – must be the rest. We must be the most. We must be the heart of Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. We must be the kindness, the generosity of spirit, the love, the healing. We must be the – what’s that saying – the, Change we wish to see in the world. What we must choose not to be is an issue. Because you know that would just piss me off.