in the spirit

i like Christmas, i do. but i dont like what our American culture has done with the holiday. Mike has been pointing out some of the gifts people can now get for their friends and family. oh, and must i add: for their "Christian" friends and family. and yet, isent it the Christians who should see through the fallacy? the santa clause and reindeer and eggnog and stockings and ornaments and traditions. one word: Pharisees.

(can i just add one little rant about ornaments on the tree. what is their purpose? seriously?)

so today i read this poem by Silvia Plath called Reindeer Girl. it might be crass for some, but it brings us back to reality. we put on our happy faces and be merry, or fake bing merry and sit by the warmth of the fire reading Christmas stories. Christmas is about Christ. Christ is about loving others. the sinners. and this world isent about sitting around drinking eggnog, its a war.

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. - Matthew 11:12

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other. -John 12:12-17

Reindeer Girl
BY SYLVIA PLATH

On this month they call December,
On this street of filth,
A girl with her latest suitor
Is walking through the filthy snow
Piled on the sidewalks by the still-eyed men
Who call her "slut"
From their wretched street-sweeper machines.
And she hears the sound
Of Jack Frost nipping at her nose
And the man next to her
Drunkenly stumbles along
Thinking of a television set
That he saw in a window surrounded by fake snow
And the falsehood she has walked through
Her whole reindeer life, daddy.
Oh, Curse this idiot and his television.
Oh, father!
Curse your life with your driveway!
And your brick barbeque pit
And your American wet saliva
That sticks to your disgusting American face
With Perry Como in it
With a green face
Because they cannot get
The "tone" control right.