C-C-C-Christ

This holiday has us all wondering what we did to deserve all this extra exercise shoveling the white stuff from above, added to the other stresses of the season and the ongoing bah humbug attitude coming from our somewhat less omnipotent leaders it makes it hard to remember what this is supposed to be about. I am probably the last person to preach about it being a celebration of “Christ’s” birth, not a church go’er, not a believer of any religion, not even one to “get excited” about the holiday I never the less do know where it originated.
To those that do celebrate it as Christ’s birthday, I respect your views. To those that look upon it as an excuse to gather family around and share some special moments, I will be doing the same, would but that we did it more often. For those that have spent or received hundreds of dollars worth of gifts, thanks for helping our economy, I do hope you bought Canadian goods. To those of other faiths, I respect your beliefs also but you may as well take advantage of this holiday to join your family also. And finally to those big box stores, sorry but you will not be getting any of my money to pay your executive bonuses…

As I said above I am not a “church go’er” nor am I a religious person but that does not stop me from being a believer in the Christian “ideals”, one does not have to have a belief in a superior being or have a religious “leader” available to tell you what to do to be a caring and responsible person. Not being one to really accept “labels” the closest I have seen that encompasses my views is that called a Humanist, but as I say I am not much on labels, suffice to say that if one is raised to know right from wrong (and most of us are) you know in your own mind when you go astray. I am sorry to say that my views have been developed from reading about and watching the various religions across the world as they literally go to war about their individual beliefs. Somewhere I have read that more humans have been killed in “religious wars” than in any other conflicts, if you consider the medieval wars and the recent and current conflicts, which seem to be defined by religious beliefs, that may well be true.

There is one piece of Christian writing that we should take particular note of, something about reaping what you sow, indeed if you don’t treat others with respect one should not expect respect in return, a lesson that our political partys in Ottawa have yet to learn it would seem.
So as we celebrate the birth of one particular religion I would suggest that we collectively need to make the holiday more about embracing a tolerance for all points of view and less about a narrow definition of our particular beliefs. Take the best of your “religious” teachings, put dogma aside and BE a good neighbor, friend, parent, child, person and human being. Actions speak louder than prayers!

Merry ……er …….”Holidays” to you all.