収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

Christmas so hasn't worked for me as a spiritual occasion for a long time, and this "not working" really undercut the "have a party and try to be less of a wretched fleshbag for a couple of weeks in general and one day in particular"....

Atheist phase: it peeved me a bit because people wouldn't acknowledge they alone were making themselves nicer and because I hated anything slowing down the death of Christianity

Jewish phase: they stole our message, laced it with cyanide, _and_ killed and tortured a bunch of us...for no rationally defensible reason! (yes, I know since I didn't convert, "us" is inappropriate but I did really feel like they were "my side")

incoherent Pagan phase: you people are treating the forging of your souls like dropping off your tax stuff with the accountant to fill out, and Christmas is the big filing and tax return party rolled into one. Oh, and people are sold on Jesus because the world sucks so much it can only be tolerable if some outside force saves us from reality. So talk about inverting the whole purpose of observing the solstice....

(and Christmas is a party to distract Christians from the fact the majority will have hardly any spiritual experiences in their life (if any at all) so it's basically helping keep people hooked on nutrasweet instead of food)

(there are errors and bad assumptions nestled in my thinking earlier in life so I'm sure this current phase has a few I will look back ruefully upon one day)

So yah, I do feast on Christmas...but not to commemorate anything about Christianity but as a sort of counter demonstration that I do have a lot to be grateful for, and okay, I'll be grateful for it today too. But I'll be grateful my way :)