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goodwill toward man
Well, I guess we're sorta all-moved-in. Stayed here last night, but now Laura's here, and mom made a few more trips home, and we have more food and we've actually cooked and eaten a meal. I miss Xenia. =/ And more than that, I think I just hate all the light pollution of living in the city, not to mention the fact that we are ONE BLOCK from a vry overly-lit campus.
Dammit, UD. >=/
You know what, though? I have really awesome friends. Even though it felt kind of cheap and lame, I really wanted to make mix CDs, so I made a mix of my favorite Christmas songs, and two songs from How I Met Your Mother, and people really liked them. =)
I've been doing a lot of end-of-year thinking lately, just thinking about how I set out this year to figure some things out, and I think I did pretty well. And I don't know how long ago I decided I was going to be agnostic or atheist or whatever, but it's something I thought about a lot this year. In regard to how Marianist Catholicism is treated at Chaminade (and in Samoa), and how it's treated in other ways. I suppose I started thinking about it more when Grandma gave me The God Delusion when we were at the beach... I think I've pretty much been thinking about it ever since.
ANYWAY, I've been thinking a lot about what would happen if I told my mom and dad I was agnostic, and how well (or rather, I'm thinking, not well) it would go over, but anyway, how much I want to and how much I want not to participate in religious stuff. I know for some people it's just going through the motions and they don't care, but I guess it seems dishonest to me because people don't know I'm not Catholic. I guess. But I guess I don't mind it so much because I like singing and stuff... Like today, playing Christmas carols with the brass.
I talk tangentially a lot, sorry. I haven't quite reached my point. It's interesting to read stuff about Catholicism because they support constructive questioning and al that stuff, but I feel because they try not to be fundamentalist, they still have a lot of good things to say. (Yeah, so I'm not a godless heathen, lol.) BUT, I did read an interesting article about how Catholicism has the most converts to atheism because they do support reasoning and evolution and all that sort of jazz. Interesting. I'll have to see if I can find the article again (I had it open, but my computer's been on the fritz... lots of lost tabs are the result).
BUT, I came across this in the Catholic Telegraph and I wanted to share:
Q. My question isn't very deep, but with Christmas coming I am concerned about the attitude of some friends who don't want their children to "believe in Santa Claus."
From almost infancy, they tell their children there isn't really a Santa and that it was all made up to sell more things at Christmastime. I think they're missing something, but I'm not sure how to tell them. What do you think? (Florida)
FATHER JOHN DIETZEN: I too think they are missing something - very big. It's always risky to analyze fantasies, but maybe it's worth trying for a moment.
Fantasies, perhaps especially for children, are critical ways of entering a world, a real world that is closed to us in ordinary human language and happenings. They are doors to wonder and awe, a way of touching something otherwise incomprehensible. Santa Claus, I believe, is like that.
No one has ever expressed this truth more movingly and accurately, in my opinion, than the great British Catholic author G.K. Chesterton in an essay years ago in the London Tablet. On Christmas morning, he remembered, his stockings were filled with things he had not worked for, or made, or even been good for.
The only explanation people had was that a being called Santa Claus was somehow kindly disposed toward him. "We believed," he wrote, that a certain benevolent person "did give us those toys for nothing. And ... I believe it still. I have merely extended the idea.
"Then I only wondered who put the toys in the stocking; now I wonder who put the stocking by the bed, and the bed in the room, and the room in the house, and the house on the planet, and the great planet in the void.
"Once I only thanked Santa Claus for a few dolls and crackers, now I thank him for stars and street faces and wine and the great sea. Once I thought it delightful and astonishing to find a present so big that it only went halfway into the stocking.
"Now I am delighted and astonished every morning to find a present so big that it takes two stockings to hold it, and then leaves a great deal outside; it is the large and preposterous present of myself, as to the origin of which I can offer no suggestion except that Santa Claus gave it to me in a fit of peculiarly fantastic good will."
Are not parents of faith blessed, countless times over, to have for their children (and for themselves) such a fantastic and playful bridge to infinite, unconditionally loving Goodness, the Goodness which dreamed up the Christmas event in the first place?
Call Santa Claus a myth or what you will, but in his name parents, and for that matter all of us who give gifts at this special time of the year, are putting each other in deeper touch with the "peculiarly fantastic good will" who is the ultimate Source of it all. Plus, it's fun!
I hope your friends reconsider.
The question came up the other day (for you QC followers)-- what do atheist parents teach their children about death? I was browsing the forums as it's something I've always had fear and wondered about myself; the best answer I saw was a guy who said: Do you remember what it was like before you were born? No? It's just like that.
Which makes sense, and I like that. But I do agree that people need to know how to dream and believe unbelievable things. I've felt for the longest time, regardless of my "belief in god" distinctly or whathaveyou, that my faith has been more in people. In what they are capable of.
I suppose that is kind of too romantic perhaps, but it's what I believe. (I'm big on imagination, and dreaming, and creativity and all that... All of which is a large part of this, for me at least.) Which is, essentially, how I believe in Santa Claus, and exactly as I was thinking the other day (and this Catholic Telegraph article seems to agree with me), perhaps how I may see "God" as well. Belief in an idea rather than a thing... Not what Father Dietzen is saying, I'm pretty sure; but that's what I mean.
Part of why I've been thinking about this is my parents got these magnets for their cars what say "Keep Christ in Christmas". I can see, on a capitalist level, how that might be offensive, but I kind of find it insulting that my dad basically said that non-Christians should not celebrate Christmas. I can see where you might say "not celebrate Christ's birth" but what if I still think he was a pretty cool guy who actually existed? His messages are basically the same--Golden Rule and all--whether you believe he's the Son of God or not. And if maybe you take the God-is-just-all-good-an-idea-not-a-thing, maybe that's still true, who knows. It's too much for this post and this moment, so I suppose I'll come back to that idea later. But what I was saying is, if I agree with the meaning of the season, giving of yourself and helping the poor and being kind to people, how is that wrong? Or offensive? And the question I've always wondered, if you can handle that for a few weeks a year, why not the rest of it?
Anyway, so ruminating on that for the past several weeks I kind of arrived at the conclusion earlier that I am agnostic but "functionally atheist", which is true, but then today I decided perhaps I should call "my relgion" as "Catholic agnosticism" to stop people from wanting to harass me for it. (Because, clearly, being an atheist means I have no morals! Right.)
On a similar yet unrelated note, the "war on Christmas" is so stupid it makes me sick. Christians are a majority, and plus, what, you don't celebrate New Year's? Then don't act like "Happy Holidays" is offensive. Thank goodness I haven't actually met someone who thinks so.
That being said, merry Christmas, happy holidays, season's greetings, happy Hannukah, happy new year, pick your favorites. Or none at all. Or a different one completely. The point is, Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men.
To me, that is Christmas.
And I'm really hoping I get the Indiana Jones soundtrack collection tomorrow... LOL. This post needs some levity.
Dammit, UD. >=/
You know what, though? I have really awesome friends. Even though it felt kind of cheap and lame, I really wanted to make mix CDs, so I made a mix of my favorite Christmas songs, and two songs from How I Met Your Mother, and people really liked them. =)
I've been doing a lot of end-of-year thinking lately, just thinking about how I set out this year to figure some things out, and I think I did pretty well. And I don't know how long ago I decided I was going to be agnostic or atheist or whatever, but it's something I thought about a lot this year. In regard to how Marianist Catholicism is treated at Chaminade (and in Samoa), and how it's treated in other ways. I suppose I started thinking about it more when Grandma gave me The God Delusion when we were at the beach... I think I've pretty much been thinking about it ever since.
ANYWAY, I've been thinking a lot about what would happen if I told my mom and dad I was agnostic, and how well (or rather, I'm thinking, not well) it would go over, but anyway, how much I want to and how much I want not to participate in religious stuff. I know for some people it's just going through the motions and they don't care, but I guess it seems dishonest to me because people don't know I'm not Catholic. I guess. But I guess I don't mind it so much because I like singing and stuff... Like today, playing Christmas carols with the brass.
I talk tangentially a lot, sorry. I haven't quite reached my point. It's interesting to read stuff about Catholicism because they support constructive questioning and al that stuff, but I feel because they try not to be fundamentalist, they still have a lot of good things to say. (Yeah, so I'm not a godless heathen, lol.) BUT, I did read an interesting article about how Catholicism has the most converts to atheism because they do support reasoning and evolution and all that sort of jazz. Interesting. I'll have to see if I can find the article again (I had it open, but my computer's been on the fritz... lots of lost tabs are the result).
BUT, I came across this in the Catholic Telegraph and I wanted to share:
Q. My question isn't very deep, but with Christmas coming I am concerned about the attitude of some friends who don't want their children to "believe in Santa Claus."
From almost infancy, they tell their children there isn't really a Santa and that it was all made up to sell more things at Christmastime. I think they're missing something, but I'm not sure how to tell them. What do you think? (Florida)
FATHER JOHN DIETZEN: I too think they are missing something - very big. It's always risky to analyze fantasies, but maybe it's worth trying for a moment.
Fantasies, perhaps especially for children, are critical ways of entering a world, a real world that is closed to us in ordinary human language and happenings. They are doors to wonder and awe, a way of touching something otherwise incomprehensible. Santa Claus, I believe, is like that.
No one has ever expressed this truth more movingly and accurately, in my opinion, than the great British Catholic author G.K. Chesterton in an essay years ago in the London Tablet. On Christmas morning, he remembered, his stockings were filled with things he had not worked for, or made, or even been good for.
The only explanation people had was that a being called Santa Claus was somehow kindly disposed toward him. "We believed," he wrote, that a certain benevolent person "did give us those toys for nothing. And ... I believe it still. I have merely extended the idea.
"Then I only wondered who put the toys in the stocking; now I wonder who put the stocking by the bed, and the bed in the room, and the room in the house, and the house on the planet, and the great planet in the void.
"Once I only thanked Santa Claus for a few dolls and crackers, now I thank him for stars and street faces and wine and the great sea. Once I thought it delightful and astonishing to find a present so big that it only went halfway into the stocking.
"Now I am delighted and astonished every morning to find a present so big that it takes two stockings to hold it, and then leaves a great deal outside; it is the large and preposterous present of myself, as to the origin of which I can offer no suggestion except that Santa Claus gave it to me in a fit of peculiarly fantastic good will."
Are not parents of faith blessed, countless times over, to have for their children (and for themselves) such a fantastic and playful bridge to infinite, unconditionally loving Goodness, the Goodness which dreamed up the Christmas event in the first place?
Call Santa Claus a myth or what you will, but in his name parents, and for that matter all of us who give gifts at this special time of the year, are putting each other in deeper touch with the "peculiarly fantastic good will" who is the ultimate Source of it all. Plus, it's fun!
I hope your friends reconsider.
The question came up the other day (for you QC followers)-- what do atheist parents teach their children about death? I was browsing the forums as it's something I've always had fear and wondered about myself; the best answer I saw was a guy who said: Do you remember what it was like before you were born? No? It's just like that.
Which makes sense, and I like that. But I do agree that people need to know how to dream and believe unbelievable things. I've felt for the longest time, regardless of my "belief in god" distinctly or whathaveyou, that my faith has been more in people. In what they are capable of.
I suppose that is kind of too romantic perhaps, but it's what I believe. (I'm big on imagination, and dreaming, and creativity and all that... All of which is a large part of this, for me at least.) Which is, essentially, how I believe in Santa Claus, and exactly as I was thinking the other day (and this Catholic Telegraph article seems to agree with me), perhaps how I may see "God" as well. Belief in an idea rather than a thing... Not what Father Dietzen is saying, I'm pretty sure; but that's what I mean.
Part of why I've been thinking about this is my parents got these magnets for their cars what say "Keep Christ in Christmas". I can see, on a capitalist level, how that might be offensive, but I kind of find it insulting that my dad basically said that non-Christians should not celebrate Christmas. I can see where you might say "not celebrate Christ's birth" but what if I still think he was a pretty cool guy who actually existed? His messages are basically the same--Golden Rule and all--whether you believe he's the Son of God or not. And if maybe you take the God-is-just-all-good-an-idea-not-a-thing, maybe that's still true, who knows. It's too much for this post and this moment, so I suppose I'll come back to that idea later. But what I was saying is, if I agree with the meaning of the season, giving of yourself and helping the poor and being kind to people, how is that wrong? Or offensive? And the question I've always wondered, if you can handle that for a few weeks a year, why not the rest of it?
Anyway, so ruminating on that for the past several weeks I kind of arrived at the conclusion earlier that I am agnostic but "functionally atheist", which is true, but then today I decided perhaps I should call "my relgion" as "Catholic agnosticism" to stop people from wanting to harass me for it. (Because, clearly, being an atheist means I have no morals! Right.)
On a similar yet unrelated note, the "war on Christmas" is so stupid it makes me sick. Christians are a majority, and plus, what, you don't celebrate New Year's? Then don't act like "Happy Holidays" is offensive. Thank goodness I haven't actually met someone who thinks so.
That being said, merry Christmas, happy holidays, season's greetings, happy Hannukah, happy new year, pick your favorites. Or none at all. Or a different one completely. The point is, Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men.
To me, that is Christmas.
And I'm really hoping I get the Indiana Jones soundtrack collection tomorrow... LOL. This post needs some levity.