Everything about this holiday makes me angry this year. I have a full box of Christmas decorations I am taking to the communal area. I don't even want to take a photo or make a joke about it.
I don't participate in Christmas any more and it is time to simply hand over this stuff to those who do.
The last few weeks I have failed to write about the purge items. Toiletries (so very few left) and Wardrobe were omitted. The wardrobe purge is going to work like the jewelry purge. At the beginning of 2009 I am putting all of my clothes except the grey and brown items into boxes. The ultimate decisions are not going to be made for another year. I want to be wearing neutrals for 2009. This will be a kind of uniform. I haven't fully decided if I will include black yet.
6 comments:
Christmas makes me angry every year, all that obligation and traveling in dangerous weather. I'm sorry it's got you down too :(
We have some AWESOME solstice stuff going on this year - early-ass singing at the river bridge, as always, and an activist thingy at dark at the natural spring south of us.
I am feeling pretty cheerful this year, actually, that Mica is going to remember stuff like cutting paper snowflakes and going out in the cold dark to sing up the sun, instead of the giftoramas of my childhood.
Or maybe I'm just feeling better now that temps are up above zero here again.
Giftoramas . . . LOL
We too have a solstice evening planned - for Saturday night. I am baking bread bowls, another guy is making the chile con carne. We will also have chile con queso.
Yeah - chilly it is. I finally turned my space heater on the last 3 days for a bit to keep it around 65.
I am not really in a bad mood, but I think I am reacting to all of the blogs that want to keep this xmas thing going - with a greenwash.
It is the Christians too. Where the fuck are the people who have a clue by four about the teachings? The haters rule and the passivity packed into those non-taxed cathedrals just makes me nutty. Christians lost the plot centuries ago.
Whatever we do, we must not make any goddammed waves or imply someone might be wrong about something. Ugh. And I had a lovely talk with my mother the other night. I always end up loving the conversation and yet chafe with remembered words and inuendo. It's classic shit and it passes.
The awesome thing for me is that my boyfriend's sister-in-law is in the anti-Santa boat with me, but from the other side - she feels that Santa & commercialization undermine the Christian part of Christmas.
The bad part is that we're up against the immovable wall of a really large, Christmas-focused family. I think it's a German immigrant thing - in family movies you can hear his grandma bossing the kids in German, under the cloud of cigarette smoke & above the drifts of wrapping paper.
If it makes you feel better, *my* mom sent Mica a polyester Guitar Hero shirt that hangs to his knees, and has a little electronic doo-bob that plays guitar riffs when you press it.
Oh.My.God. I would be a raving lunatic in that setting. Shit howdy. If I felt like I do now when my children were small (and the world was a different place) I do not know what I would have done.
What is getting me the most is my realization of just how deeply this culture is saturated, no pickled, in privilege and blinkered assumptions. The imposition on another's belief is astounding.
The next several days of blogging will be mining this dark aspect of a jingoist nation of xtians. Gah.
Would I say to my child, "Yes darling, Santa is real to the people who believe that money and buying and things are more important than anything in the world. Of course you can believe too, until you get to know other people, ideas and find something even better than Santa." Said with warmth and sincere love.
Yeah, that's an issue. So far we're only as far as "Santa doesn't come to our house."
My friends kids all know "Santa doesn't come to our house because we're not Christian." but Ben would rather die than let his mom know he's not Catholic anymore. So.
(My mom knows we're not Christian, she just chooses to ignore it.)
One cool thing is there are a lot of Muslim kids here, and his daycare does Kwanza, so at least he's not surprised that people exist who don't celebrate Christmas.
Alas, A Blog! was talking about Christianism. Not the concept so much but the term. I like it - several Christians were offended, which means it's more effective than "Christonormativity".
I have used Christianist for some time and have even let it fall into my letters to my mom. Christonormativity LOL
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