December has flown by; I feel like Thanksgiving was last week. Yesterday, we had early christmas with the grandparents, siblings, s.o.'s, a cousin, and a mom. It was very jolly and silly and a pleasant time was definitely had by all. It was a much needed experience as I feel like I haven’t gotten around to as many xmas elf activities this year as I would like but I figure it's ok to cut myself a little slack since 2009 has easily been the WORST YEAR EVER.
I would like to at least complete my xmas music mix so we'll see if that can be accomplished!
On that note, I will share a seasonal occurrence and the related thoughts it inspired:
Today I received a card from a coworker that was so outrageously religious it made me uncomfortable and strangely offended, which was a little exciting and new to me. This kind of behavior I’ll tolerate from family but for some reason, from strangers it seems even more offensive. I have made it a point to be tolerant and respectful of others' religious choices but, as an atheist, I know that few of my friends of christian faith particularly tolerate or respect that choice – technically my choice, and any choice that differs from following jesus, really upsets the prime christian directive.
It was interesting to feel actually offended by a piece of christian propaganda and it made me think: I think it's nearly unconscionably rude to force your faith on someone else, or presume that the person to whom you're speaking shares those same views (clearly I'm not a missionary (colonialism) fan). Since I have let go of faith, I have worked very hard to not assume or judge people based on faith and what irritates me about this is that my choice to tolerate and keep my opinions to myself (to possibly be shared loudly and with mild derision in the privacy of my own home with other like-minded individuals, but never mind that) is completely non-reciprocated.
My choice to live a faith-free life, to work consciously to free myself from the constraints of hope and fear, and to decorate uproariously at christmas as a nod to my christian, pagan, and mid-century american roots, has not ever been a belief that I feel I could or should brandish at friends and strangers of all faiths on a card. I'm not sure where this leaves me on the scale of offense so I'll just conclude with something like: boo to you, humans and culture!
Lastly! Pandora gripes: PANDORA! I DO NOT LIKE HAWAIIAN CHRISTMAS MUSIC and even though I love christmas music, I am not christian! So, that means the do-not-play list is as follows: no hawaiian xmas music, contemporary-christian carols, or hanukkah songs. How's that for a demonstrated exercise in tolerance!
No comments:
Post a Comment