- I taught myself how to knit.
- I won a singing toothbrush for having the best sentence in a Periodic Sentence competition.
- Caledonia High School had something like 5 snow days in February alone, giving me ample time to watch the first 2.5 seasons of Downton Abbey. (I stopped at a time when everyone was reasonably happy and I could blissfully ignore the fact that it was all going to hit the fan in the next episode.)
- I read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, and Lord of the Flies within the span of two months, learning that a) I can actually read well and fast when I try and b) I do actually like Lord of the Flies, contrary to my 7th-grade self's opinion. (I mean...no one actually likes Lord of the Flies...but you know what I mean.)
- I watched Ted Dansen in Gulliver's Travels the equivalent of four times.
- I made Professor Vande Kopple's face bleed from a too-cold snow ball to the nose.
- Grand Rapids was voted Beer City USA
- Amy, Luke, Jake, and I went bowling and the people who took our order of food and drinks messed up and brought us double of everything.
- I bought two tactical scarves and a set of Game of Thrones pint glasses.
- My cousins got married to my awesome new cousins.
- My brother got drunk at one of the weddings and went fishing in the hotel pond.
- I saw Mr. Sampson for the first time in years.
- I made a big, spur-of-the-moment decision that I almost completely don't regret.
- I went to California for the first time.
- I left California.
- I bought Mario Kart Wii. Easily the best purchase of my life.
- I went to a Muse concert with some of my favorite people.
- I reread Ender's Game.
- I took Fudge to dog parks.
- I am no longer 23 so people can like me again...please?
- I bought a new Christmas tree and way too many ornaments second hand and spent a total of about 100 hours doing nothing but sitting in front of my Christmas Grove, staring at its beauty.
- My best friend gave me a very pretty ring and a handy excuse to stare at it from time to time.
- I survived and thrived through another Colorado Christmas.
- I made it through this year and it didn't kill me.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Obligatory Post about 2013
This could be a 2013 In Review! post, but no one wants that. 2013 was awful, and I'm glad to see it gone. I'll just do a quick list to remind myself of all the big things that I actually want to remember.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
A Brief Overview of Wrapping Gifts, for those of you about to rage-quit Christmas
If you’re a proactive person, this post will be one of those
fancy desserts that blends well with the meal that came before it. If you’re like most people I know, this post
will be the burnt English muffin breakfast you almost forgot about on your way
out the door in the morning. Sorry about
that.
The concept of wrapping gifts to hide contents and decorate
packaging dates all the way back to ancient China when government officials
were presented with gifts of money wrapped in paper envelopes. The Japanese in the Edo period (1600s to
1800s), wrapped gifts in decorative silk cloths in a method called furoshiki.
Spinning the globe a bit, we come to Victorian era England,
where gift giving was a popular pastime, second only to displaying an illusion
of wealth. Over time, the upper classes
developed a trend of concealing gifts in wallpaper. If you’ve ever used wallpaper for anything,
you know that it can be a pain to fold, and I can only imagine that the smaller
the gift, the more un-Victorian profanity involved. After paper manufacturers realized that this
trend was not going away, they started selling colored tissue paper that was
both decorative and easy to manipulate.
Enter the American company, Hallmark. Almost one hundred years ago, the Hall
brothers accidentally invented what is now wrapping paper when they ran out of
that fancy tissue paper and improvised by selling pretty print French paper
envelope liners. Those went over so well
with Hallmark’s customer base that they began printing their own.
But gift wrapping isn’t just a social nicety we begrudgingly
observe a few times a year. It’s also
science! The “gift wrapping” algorithm is
something mathematicians use to find the convex hull of a set of points. What is a convex hull, you ask? I’m glad you ask, because I had to look it
up. One way to explain it is if you have
a graph full of data points…
…and the convex hull is what would be created if you could
stretch a rubber band around the outside edge of all the points.
The gift wrapping algorithm is used to calculate that rubber
band. You can find some interesting
demonstrations of the algorithm in use in 2D and 3D data sets here.
Now that you know more about gift wrapping than you ever
knew you wanted to know, you can feel proud of yourself as you either relax on
the couch, admiring your handiwork under your tree, or you can go back to
procrastinating with my blessing.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
What is the best policy, again?
This morning, I read a blog post about modesty, and I have been musing about it in the back of my mind all day. You should read it and then come back to this post so we can discuss it together.
If you don't want to do that, I'll tl;dr it for you.
1) Women's bodies are policed in frustrating ways from both ends of the spectrum: in magazines, TV shows, movies, etc, women are told to be thinner, fitter, more pleasing to men in visual and sexual contexts, and in churches (as well as other, non-Christian arenas) across the world, women are told to cover up, to strive for plainness, to please men by not leading them into sin.
2) This is baffling to the Christian woman who wrote the blogpost (and to me) because nowhere in the Bible does God or Jesus say that women are are fault for their brothers' lustful stumbles, nor does the Bible ever lay the onus on women to prevent the sinful thoughts of others.
3) We, as Christians and a Church turn modesty into objectification by blaming women for the sins of their Christian brothers, and by making women ashamed of their bodies, telling them that their physical form has been corrupted by Satan into an instrument of sin.
4) The blogger finishes her post by saying "Dress for yourself in a way that is glorifying to God, not men. ... Prioritize strength, dignity and good deeds, and then dress accordingly. Find something that makes you comfortable. Find something that is ethically made. Find something that gives you the freedom to run with abandon into those incoming waves—and revel in this body and this world God gave you to enjoy." In the earlier version of the post that I read, she also included something along the lines of "Wear what makes you happy."
This, my sort-of response post, is something I've been writing in my head for many years, my thoughts on this topic that have been simmering for a long time, and are now coming to the surface because I think I've finally formed an opinion worth standing on.
-=-=-=-=-=-
First of all, I should preface this to all the non-Christian or not-religious readers I may or may not have. I realize that this whole argument may seem pretty dumb to you. The more I study Christianity and faith from the inside, the more I've come to realize how utterly ridiculous it must seem from the outside. I can appreciate the struggles non-Christian people have with both the Church and its faith. I've heard a lot of off-hand summarizations of Christianity that go something like, "A bunch of people who rely on a centuries-old text to dictate their every day life and hold way too much stock in a guy who asked them to drink his blood and eat is body." Our rituals, our beliefs, and our culture are hard to stomach, and I've even spent a lot of my Christian life struggling to get to the bottom of them.
That said, if you disagree with what I say here and would like to have a discussion about it, please remember that, if we come from different foundational beliefs, that discussion is going to be heavy and intimate, and will go deeper than just the words in this post, so maybe we should find a better place to have that conversation than in the comments section or on my Facebook.
-=-=-=-=-=-
I've always had a problem with the "Modesty is the Best Policy!" speeches that we got in church as kids and teenagers. For one thing, the youth group leaders would separate us into two groups--boys and girls--as if our trials in the arena of sexuality and self-expression were too different, and moreover, needed to be kept secret from one another. I always wanted to know what was going on in the boys' conversations about these issues, and I always wanted them to know what was going on in the girls', but that wasn't allowed for some reason.
I don't really think that men's and women's struggles with lust and objectification are vastly different, and I definitely don't think they should be trade secrets that separate us. It's that separation and miscommunication that leads to statements like, "Women shouldn't be allowed to be church leaders or pastors because their bodies will lead the men in the congregation to sin." The truth of it is that both men and women can be distracted by men and women's bodies. If I had a nickel for every girl whose crush on a male pastor or worship leader distracted her from the message of the church, I could probably pay for all the Christmas gifts I bought this year and get myself a little something extra, too. That fact would be more widely known and accepted if men and women in church talked together about things like sexuality and attraction.
The reason the idea of modesty has been on my mind a lot recently (more recently, anyway, than the Sunday School sex talks I got in high school) is because, in college, I became really gung-ho about feminism and gender equality, and it has since changed my view of myself and my role as a woman in Christianity. A lot of topics come into play with the discussion of women in the Church, and modesty is one of them that pops up quite frequently and in rather inconspicuous ways.
For instance, when I was 18 and younger, going to church with my parents or friends, I felt convicted not to wear tank tops. I felt uncomfortable with my shoulders uncovered, not because I didn't like tank-tops in general, but because I didn't think they were something a Godly woman should wear, and I didn't want people at church to think I was anything but Godly.
This attitude persisted for some time into college, but eventually, a fundamental change occurred, and I stopped thinking that showing off my shoulders was unGodly, but I still worried about what people at church would think of me if I did it. I worried, not about men lusting after me, but about women and pastors and indoctrinated children passing judgements about me and my faith because my skirt was too short or my cleavage was too exposed.
I can't attest to whether or not anyone at any of my previous churches actually did pass such judgements on me, but I can say that I was no longer trying to please God. I was trying to please God's followers. I was not even trying to protect men struggling with lustful thoughts; I was trying to protect myself from the scorn of anyone struggling with a judgmental nature.
And I think that was the sin I committed. Not only was I passing judgment prematurely on my brothers and sisters in Christ by assuming that they would think so poorly of me so easily, but I was also putting their opinion of me above God's.
I think the blogger from the above post said it well when she emphasized that women (perhaps specifically Christian women) should not be dressing for men--whether it be to please them sexually or to please them spiritually--or other people in our church congregations. We should be doing everything for the glory of God, and that includes the way we dress. That is different than wearing whatever makes you happy (which may be the reason she has since retracted that statement) because God doesn't think that our purpose on this earth is to merely be happy. But that is also different than policing our bodies or anyone else's bodies and making the argument that one person can prevent another's sin.
If, as we search through our closets in the morning (or, in my case, the pile of semi-clean clothes strewn across the floor...) we are too preoccupied thinking about how we are going to serve our Lord today, or about how our clothes are or are not going to get in the way of our worldly worship getting accomplished, isn't that more important than thinking about how many eyes we will or won't turn with our scoop neck top or our short shorts? This should also be true of men, whose bodies can also be distracting to those who see them. Shouldn't a man be more concerned with whether his T-shirt will be thin and breathable enough for him to do his work at Habitat for Humanity, than with whether the way it accentuates his shoulder blades may lead a fellow volunteer down the path that leads to destruction?
Most importantly, if a Christian does catch themselves objectifying someone who is made in the image of God, shouldn't they do whatever it takes for their own heart to undo that, rather than turn the sin and shame on that person who might not have had any malicious intent, or may have come from a culture where their chosen dress is the norm and is completely socially acceptable? Perhaps, when we catch ourselves in the act of objectification, we should pray to God for wisdom and clarity, to relearn to see that person as a unique individual who fits into God's cosmic plan for the redemption of the world. Perhaps we should find an unobtrusive way reach out to them, to have a conversation or share a meal so that we might come to know and see beyond their bodies. Or perhaps we should just remove ourselves from the situation, quoting scripture to ourselves and our inner demons, as Jesus did during his 40 days in the wilderness.
I think churches and Christians should focus as much or more of their energies on teaching their congregants how to avoid objectifying human beings as they do on teaching women how to cover up their sex-appeal. And I think that pastors and church leaders could make much more headway in the Biblical modesty department if they taught women and men fiscally and morally responsible ways to purchase, make, and wear clothing and bodily adornments instead of telling women that tank tops and mini dresses are the devil's playthings.
If you don't want to do that, I'll tl;dr it for you.
1) Women's bodies are policed in frustrating ways from both ends of the spectrum: in magazines, TV shows, movies, etc, women are told to be thinner, fitter, more pleasing to men in visual and sexual contexts, and in churches (as well as other, non-Christian arenas) across the world, women are told to cover up, to strive for plainness, to please men by not leading them into sin.
2) This is baffling to the Christian woman who wrote the blogpost (and to me) because nowhere in the Bible does God or Jesus say that women are are fault for their brothers' lustful stumbles, nor does the Bible ever lay the onus on women to prevent the sinful thoughts of others.
3) We, as Christians and a Church turn modesty into objectification by blaming women for the sins of their Christian brothers, and by making women ashamed of their bodies, telling them that their physical form has been corrupted by Satan into an instrument of sin.
4) The blogger finishes her post by saying "Dress for yourself in a way that is glorifying to God, not men. ... Prioritize strength, dignity and good deeds, and then dress accordingly. Find something that makes you comfortable. Find something that is ethically made. Find something that gives you the freedom to run with abandon into those incoming waves—and revel in this body and this world God gave you to enjoy." In the earlier version of the post that I read, she also included something along the lines of "Wear what makes you happy."
This, my sort-of response post, is something I've been writing in my head for many years, my thoughts on this topic that have been simmering for a long time, and are now coming to the surface because I think I've finally formed an opinion worth standing on.
-=-=-=-=-=-
First of all, I should preface this to all the non-Christian or not-religious readers I may or may not have. I realize that this whole argument may seem pretty dumb to you. The more I study Christianity and faith from the inside, the more I've come to realize how utterly ridiculous it must seem from the outside. I can appreciate the struggles non-Christian people have with both the Church and its faith. I've heard a lot of off-hand summarizations of Christianity that go something like, "A bunch of people who rely on a centuries-old text to dictate their every day life and hold way too much stock in a guy who asked them to drink his blood and eat is body." Our rituals, our beliefs, and our culture are hard to stomach, and I've even spent a lot of my Christian life struggling to get to the bottom of them.
That said, if you disagree with what I say here and would like to have a discussion about it, please remember that, if we come from different foundational beliefs, that discussion is going to be heavy and intimate, and will go deeper than just the words in this post, so maybe we should find a better place to have that conversation than in the comments section or on my Facebook.
-=-=-=-=-=-
I've always had a problem with the "Modesty is the Best Policy!" speeches that we got in church as kids and teenagers. For one thing, the youth group leaders would separate us into two groups--boys and girls--as if our trials in the arena of sexuality and self-expression were too different, and moreover, needed to be kept secret from one another. I always wanted to know what was going on in the boys' conversations about these issues, and I always wanted them to know what was going on in the girls', but that wasn't allowed for some reason.
I don't really think that men's and women's struggles with lust and objectification are vastly different, and I definitely don't think they should be trade secrets that separate us. It's that separation and miscommunication that leads to statements like, "Women shouldn't be allowed to be church leaders or pastors because their bodies will lead the men in the congregation to sin." The truth of it is that both men and women can be distracted by men and women's bodies. If I had a nickel for every girl whose crush on a male pastor or worship leader distracted her from the message of the church, I could probably pay for all the Christmas gifts I bought this year and get myself a little something extra, too. That fact would be more widely known and accepted if men and women in church talked together about things like sexuality and attraction.
The reason the idea of modesty has been on my mind a lot recently (more recently, anyway, than the Sunday School sex talks I got in high school) is because, in college, I became really gung-ho about feminism and gender equality, and it has since changed my view of myself and my role as a woman in Christianity. A lot of topics come into play with the discussion of women in the Church, and modesty is one of them that pops up quite frequently and in rather inconspicuous ways.
For instance, when I was 18 and younger, going to church with my parents or friends, I felt convicted not to wear tank tops. I felt uncomfortable with my shoulders uncovered, not because I didn't like tank-tops in general, but because I didn't think they were something a Godly woman should wear, and I didn't want people at church to think I was anything but Godly.
This attitude persisted for some time into college, but eventually, a fundamental change occurred, and I stopped thinking that showing off my shoulders was unGodly, but I still worried about what people at church would think of me if I did it. I worried, not about men lusting after me, but about women and pastors and indoctrinated children passing judgements about me and my faith because my skirt was too short or my cleavage was too exposed.
I can't attest to whether or not anyone at any of my previous churches actually did pass such judgements on me, but I can say that I was no longer trying to please God. I was trying to please God's followers. I was not even trying to protect men struggling with lustful thoughts; I was trying to protect myself from the scorn of anyone struggling with a judgmental nature.
And I think that was the sin I committed. Not only was I passing judgment prematurely on my brothers and sisters in Christ by assuming that they would think so poorly of me so easily, but I was also putting their opinion of me above God's.
I think the blogger from the above post said it well when she emphasized that women (perhaps specifically Christian women) should not be dressing for men--whether it be to please them sexually or to please them spiritually--or other people in our church congregations. We should be doing everything for the glory of God, and that includes the way we dress. That is different than wearing whatever makes you happy (which may be the reason she has since retracted that statement) because God doesn't think that our purpose on this earth is to merely be happy. But that is also different than policing our bodies or anyone else's bodies and making the argument that one person can prevent another's sin.
If, as we search through our closets in the morning (or, in my case, the pile of semi-clean clothes strewn across the floor...) we are too preoccupied thinking about how we are going to serve our Lord today, or about how our clothes are or are not going to get in the way of our worldly worship getting accomplished, isn't that more important than thinking about how many eyes we will or won't turn with our scoop neck top or our short shorts? This should also be true of men, whose bodies can also be distracting to those who see them. Shouldn't a man be more concerned with whether his T-shirt will be thin and breathable enough for him to do his work at Habitat for Humanity, than with whether the way it accentuates his shoulder blades may lead a fellow volunteer down the path that leads to destruction?
Most importantly, if a Christian does catch themselves objectifying someone who is made in the image of God, shouldn't they do whatever it takes for their own heart to undo that, rather than turn the sin and shame on that person who might not have had any malicious intent, or may have come from a culture where their chosen dress is the norm and is completely socially acceptable? Perhaps, when we catch ourselves in the act of objectification, we should pray to God for wisdom and clarity, to relearn to see that person as a unique individual who fits into God's cosmic plan for the redemption of the world. Perhaps we should find an unobtrusive way reach out to them, to have a conversation or share a meal so that we might come to know and see beyond their bodies. Or perhaps we should just remove ourselves from the situation, quoting scripture to ourselves and our inner demons, as Jesus did during his 40 days in the wilderness.
I think churches and Christians should focus as much or more of their energies on teaching their congregants how to avoid objectifying human beings as they do on teaching women how to cover up their sex-appeal. And I think that pastors and church leaders could make much more headway in the Biblical modesty department if they taught women and men fiscally and morally responsible ways to purchase, make, and wear clothing and bodily adornments instead of telling women that tank tops and mini dresses are the devil's playthings.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
The War on Christmas
If you have completely read the header image of this blog, you have probably noticed that there is a "Lord" in it, which probably tipped you off (if you are someone who needed tipping off) that it was a quote from the Bible.
Secret's out (if you are someone who thought it was a secret): I am a Christian. I'm pretty deep into it, have been for a long time. It looks like there's no hope for my rehabilitation. The heavenly Doctor has given me only an eternity left to live. In lieu of flowers, please send food because I haven't gone grocery shopping in a while.
All joking aside, I am a Christian. Through and through, I believe in Jesus, I go to Church on Sundays, I pray as daily as I can manage, I read my Bible as daily as I can remember, and I study that Bible and my God in a community with other Christians. I take my faith seriously, and while I struggle, I do try to put my love and worship of God before all else in my life.
Which is why I really hate the wars that people--predominantly Americans, I believe--declare on various "Christian" things. Recently, it has been marriage, but I that's a whole post in and of itself. A more timely war, though, is The War on Christmas. This comes around every year at this time, and I am so sick of it.
I guess I should clarify: specifically, I'm sick of people saying it's a thing.
There are some tangentially-religious topics that the conservative media addresses that should be responded to with care, diplomacy, gentle words, and loving language. But I don't believe this is one of them.
From what I can tell, this particular breed of warmongers fear the "politically correct" army is soiling the holid--I'm sorry, the Christmas Season by using the word "Holiday" instead of the word "Christmas."
There have probably been lawsuits against public displays of affection for Christmas. I think I've heard of people suing to have outdoor nativities removed from courthouses and a quick google search turns up some other weird stuff about banners that said Merry Christmas and discussions pro and against the ACLU. It is unfortunate to me that Christmas, which has already become a time to celebrate capitalism and materialism, has also become the battle ground for free speech. But to a larger degree, the backlash against and the use of these lawsuits as proof that there is a war on Christmas (and therefore Christianity) is what really troubles me.
Ostensibly, the United States is a Christian country. A non-Christian has never been elected president, we swear oaths of office and honesty on the Bible, and people like to pretend that the founding fathers were God-fearing Christians themselves. But, in actuality, we are not a Christian country. Our country has morals and as a society we have a somewhat stable belief system, but we are hardly Christian on the whole, and I don't see that as a bad thing. We are made up almost entirely of immigrants who came here from hundreds of countries and many different religions, and it just makes sense that, even if our country started as a Christian nation (it didn't), is hasn't remained one and it can't try to become one again.
In actuality, Christmas is Christian (obligatory "CHRISTmas" comment). Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, whom Christians believe to have been the incarnation of God who eventually grew up to die for their sins, thus making humans' reunion with God possible. Ostensibly, around the country, Christmas is more than that now. It, like the United States itself, has taken dozens of different cultures from around the globe and mashed them into something that Americans can all celebrate if they want to. The Christmas we get time off work for is based more on an amalgamation of Saint Nicholas's feast day and pagan celebrations of the winter solstice than it is on Christ. It is a holiday where people travel to see their families, exchange gifts under a tree and in giant socks, eat honeyed ham, and watch It's a Wonderful Life. If that family is Christian, they will likely also celebrate the birth of Christ, but if that family is not Christian (and even sometimes if they are) they will skip that part.
So doesn't it make sense that the not-actually-Christian State is a little loose with their actually-Christian-holiday terminology? People who get the time off work, who buy the gifts on sale, who put up the tree and lights and excessive lawn ornamentation aren't necessarily celebrating Christian Christmas, anymore than the people who buy the peeps and hide the eggs are celebrating Christian Easter. So what does it matter to us if they don't want to call it Christmas? Doesn't the term "holiday" fit it better, due to its ambiguity, its fluidity, and its ability to cover a lot of ground in a single word?
I guess my main beef with "the war on Christmas" propaganda is that I don't feel like wishing people "Happy holidays!" makes it harder for me to enjoy the holidays I personally celebrate (which are actually plural, including my birthday, Christmas, and New Year's Eve...). I'd feel the same way if I owned a company that sent out holiday cards, put up banners, or threw parties and I'd feel the same way if I were a teacher who wanted to decorate her classroom in December. Neither my company as a whole nor my classroom as a structure celebrates any holidays. No one is telling me how to celebrate them myself. No one is telling me I can't talk to others about how I celebrate my December holidays.
I do not see how my freedom is impinged, and I do see how my use of the word "Holidays" fits the mold of the season better that "Christmas" for most people that I talk to. It's not a matter of a war against that oh-so-terrible concept of political correctness. It's a matter of accuracy and efficiency. And you know who values efficiency?
Secret's out (if you are someone who thought it was a secret): I am a Christian. I'm pretty deep into it, have been for a long time. It looks like there's no hope for my rehabilitation. The heavenly Doctor has given me only an eternity left to live. In lieu of flowers, please send food because I haven't gone grocery shopping in a while.
All joking aside, I am a Christian. Through and through, I believe in Jesus, I go to Church on Sundays, I pray as daily as I can manage, I read my Bible as daily as I can remember, and I study that Bible and my God in a community with other Christians. I take my faith seriously, and while I struggle, I do try to put my love and worship of God before all else in my life.
Which is why I really hate the wars that people--predominantly Americans, I believe--declare on various "Christian" things. Recently, it has been marriage, but I that's a whole post in and of itself. A more timely war, though, is The War on Christmas. This comes around every year at this time, and I am so sick of it.
I guess I should clarify: specifically, I'm sick of people saying it's a thing.
There are some tangentially-religious topics that the conservative media addresses that should be responded to with care, diplomacy, gentle words, and loving language. But I don't believe this is one of them.
From what I can tell, this particular breed of warmongers fear the "politically correct" army is soiling the holid--I'm sorry, the Christmas Season by using the word "Holiday" instead of the word "Christmas."
There have probably been lawsuits against public displays of affection for Christmas. I think I've heard of people suing to have outdoor nativities removed from courthouses and a quick google search turns up some other weird stuff about banners that said Merry Christmas and discussions pro and against the ACLU. It is unfortunate to me that Christmas, which has already become a time to celebrate capitalism and materialism, has also become the battle ground for free speech. But to a larger degree, the backlash against and the use of these lawsuits as proof that there is a war on Christmas (and therefore Christianity) is what really troubles me.
Ostensibly, the United States is a Christian country. A non-Christian has never been elected president, we swear oaths of office and honesty on the Bible, and people like to pretend that the founding fathers were God-fearing Christians themselves. But, in actuality, we are not a Christian country. Our country has morals and as a society we have a somewhat stable belief system, but we are hardly Christian on the whole, and I don't see that as a bad thing. We are made up almost entirely of immigrants who came here from hundreds of countries and many different religions, and it just makes sense that, even if our country started as a Christian nation (it didn't), is hasn't remained one and it can't try to become one again.
In actuality, Christmas is Christian (obligatory "CHRISTmas" comment). Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, whom Christians believe to have been the incarnation of God who eventually grew up to die for their sins, thus making humans' reunion with God possible. Ostensibly, around the country, Christmas is more than that now. It, like the United States itself, has taken dozens of different cultures from around the globe and mashed them into something that Americans can all celebrate if they want to. The Christmas we get time off work for is based more on an amalgamation of Saint Nicholas's feast day and pagan celebrations of the winter solstice than it is on Christ. It is a holiday where people travel to see their families, exchange gifts under a tree and in giant socks, eat honeyed ham, and watch It's a Wonderful Life. If that family is Christian, they will likely also celebrate the birth of Christ, but if that family is not Christian (and even sometimes if they are) they will skip that part.
So doesn't it make sense that the not-actually-Christian State is a little loose with their actually-Christian-holiday terminology? People who get the time off work, who buy the gifts on sale, who put up the tree and lights and excessive lawn ornamentation aren't necessarily celebrating Christian Christmas, anymore than the people who buy the peeps and hide the eggs are celebrating Christian Easter. So what does it matter to us if they don't want to call it Christmas? Doesn't the term "holiday" fit it better, due to its ambiguity, its fluidity, and its ability to cover a lot of ground in a single word?
I guess my main beef with "the war on Christmas" propaganda is that I don't feel like wishing people "Happy holidays!" makes it harder for me to enjoy the holidays I personally celebrate (which are actually plural, including my birthday, Christmas, and New Year's Eve...). I'd feel the same way if I owned a company that sent out holiday cards, put up banners, or threw parties and I'd feel the same way if I were a teacher who wanted to decorate her classroom in December. Neither my company as a whole nor my classroom as a structure celebrates any holidays. No one is telling me how to celebrate them myself. No one is telling me I can't talk to others about how I celebrate my December holidays.
I do not see how my freedom is impinged, and I do see how my use of the word "Holidays" fits the mold of the season better that "Christmas" for most people that I talk to. It's not a matter of a war against that oh-so-terrible concept of political correctness. It's a matter of accuracy and efficiency. And you know who values efficiency?
And, seriously. If you put yourself in a war against the Borg, I won't even wish you good luck. Luck is irrelevant.
Happy Holidays!
Mary Margaret
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Wuhchoo Know 'Bout Me? WuhchooWuhchoo Know 'Bout Me?
Some things about me people may not know, depending on their level of involvement in my life.
1. I got my ears pierced for the first time 6 months ago
2. While changing my earrings today, I freaked out because I touched my earlobe and remembered that there was a good reason I went 23 years without even thinking about getting my ears pierced
3. I have three separate tattoos, one of which was excruciatingly painful and took over an hour to do.
4. The irony is not lost on me that I am terrified of semi-permanent, unnatural holes in my ear and yet not at all phased by totally-permanent, unnatural ink in my dermis layer.
5. Part of me has wanted for the past six months to take the earrings out and let the holes close up.
6. That part of me is not as large as the part that defiantly will not let my $30 piercing experience go to waste.
This has been a PSA.
Thank you for your time.
Mary Margaret
1. I got my ears pierced for the first time 6 months ago
2. While changing my earrings today, I freaked out because I touched my earlobe and remembered that there was a good reason I went 23 years without even thinking about getting my ears pierced
3. I have three separate tattoos, one of which was excruciatingly painful and took over an hour to do.
4. The irony is not lost on me that I am terrified of semi-permanent, unnatural holes in my ear and yet not at all phased by totally-permanent, unnatural ink in my dermis layer.
5. Part of me has wanted for the past six months to take the earrings out and let the holes close up.
6. That part of me is not as large as the part that defiantly will not let my $30 piercing experience go to waste.
This has been a PSA.
Thank you for your time.
Mary Margaret
Monday, December 2, 2013
The Blogless again shall be Writing
Long time, no blog.
For those of you who have followed previous iterations of my online writing presence, it probably came as no shock to you that I went deep and quiet the past couple of months. I tend to do that. I've tried journals, I've tried vlogs, I've tried many serial creative projects like blogs before, and I've always ended up sort of letting them fizzle into nothingness.
This time was a bit different, though, than those other things that failed like an air mattress with a pinhole. This time, I didn't gradually forget about the blog, nor did the promises I made to myself to keep writing suddenly stop mattering to me. This time, I just got scared, and I'm genuinely sorry about that.
I actually thought about this blog and considered writing something for it probably every day or every other day over the past few months. I would muse to myself about something odd that I experienced or some story that I could tell, and I would think, "I could blog about that and that would be good because I haven't blogged in a while." But it never happened, primarily because, right after such a thought would occur to me, a second thought would chase it that went something like, "That would be really hard to make into something worth reading," or "I'm not sure I'm really that good of a story teller anymore," or "I don't want to sound so whiney and complainy on the internet, where everything I do is eternal and forever."
This last thought would come on days when I was being pessimistic about the world. I must confess, those days have been coming more often lately, and they often cause me to view, not only the common, everyday evils of the world, but also the painful, personal evils of my own life in very stark contrast to the ideals that I wish I could see around me and within me. This made it hard to write because I couldn't think of funny things, I couldn't think of goodness or uplifting stories worth reading, and I constantly convinced myself that if I wrote about the darkness in my head, readers would roll their eyes and think, "Oh, there's another disillusioned twenty-three year old, unhappy and angsting over the vast amounts of world that she's seen and the sheer mass of life she's lived. How original. I'd rather watch another cat video."
I'm sorry for all this pessimism that has crept into my thoughts. It's not something I think I could have controlled (let me quickly reiterate for you all that 2013 has been a very painful year for me and a mind's reaction to pain is not easily controlled without practice that I haven't had in my cushy life) but it has nevertheless robbed me of substantial...well, Me-ness, and I desperately wish that could have been avoided somehow. It hasn't been fun for me, and it hasn't been easy for the people around me, and these unfortunate side-effects of life on Earth are generally not things we laugh about later.
But I'm happy to say that, for now at least, the cloud has passed. I can't explain it, but this past weekend, while spending Thanksgiving with my boyfriend's family in Michigan, a change sort of just happened. It wasn't like a revelation occurred to me, a distinct thought or feeling passed over me, or an experience I had jogged me out of my prolonged negativity. There isn't a moment or an understandable instance that I can point to and say, "There's when I got better," especially since I doubt that I am "better." When one is in the doldrums of life, one does not experience a single moment of clarity and suddenly escape it.
Nevertheless, I can say that I am less scared now. I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes. I feel ready to write on this blog again--among other things that I was scared of before. Not only that, I am itching to try out some creative ideas I've been putting off. Because they are in half-baked mode now, I will not elaborate, but I promise: once they're underway, you will be the first to know...if you continue to read this blog.
For now, it will have to suffice for me to say that I am back, and I've got some stories to tell. Stay tuned for more.
Mary Margaret
For those of you who have followed previous iterations of my online writing presence, it probably came as no shock to you that I went deep and quiet the past couple of months. I tend to do that. I've tried journals, I've tried vlogs, I've tried many serial creative projects like blogs before, and I've always ended up sort of letting them fizzle into nothingness.
This time was a bit different, though, than those other things that failed like an air mattress with a pinhole. This time, I didn't gradually forget about the blog, nor did the promises I made to myself to keep writing suddenly stop mattering to me. This time, I just got scared, and I'm genuinely sorry about that.
I actually thought about this blog and considered writing something for it probably every day or every other day over the past few months. I would muse to myself about something odd that I experienced or some story that I could tell, and I would think, "I could blog about that and that would be good because I haven't blogged in a while." But it never happened, primarily because, right after such a thought would occur to me, a second thought would chase it that went something like, "That would be really hard to make into something worth reading," or "I'm not sure I'm really that good of a story teller anymore," or "I don't want to sound so whiney and complainy on the internet, where everything I do is eternal and forever."
This last thought would come on days when I was being pessimistic about the world. I must confess, those days have been coming more often lately, and they often cause me to view, not only the common, everyday evils of the world, but also the painful, personal evils of my own life in very stark contrast to the ideals that I wish I could see around me and within me. This made it hard to write because I couldn't think of funny things, I couldn't think of goodness or uplifting stories worth reading, and I constantly convinced myself that if I wrote about the darkness in my head, readers would roll their eyes and think, "Oh, there's another disillusioned twenty-three year old, unhappy and angsting over the vast amounts of world that she's seen and the sheer mass of life she's lived. How original. I'd rather watch another cat video."
I'm sorry for all this pessimism that has crept into my thoughts. It's not something I think I could have controlled (let me quickly reiterate for you all that 2013 has been a very painful year for me and a mind's reaction to pain is not easily controlled without practice that I haven't had in my cushy life) but it has nevertheless robbed me of substantial...well, Me-ness, and I desperately wish that could have been avoided somehow. It hasn't been fun for me, and it hasn't been easy for the people around me, and these unfortunate side-effects of life on Earth are generally not things we laugh about later.
But I'm happy to say that, for now at least, the cloud has passed. I can't explain it, but this past weekend, while spending Thanksgiving with my boyfriend's family in Michigan, a change sort of just happened. It wasn't like a revelation occurred to me, a distinct thought or feeling passed over me, or an experience I had jogged me out of my prolonged negativity. There isn't a moment or an understandable instance that I can point to and say, "There's when I got better," especially since I doubt that I am "better." When one is in the doldrums of life, one does not experience a single moment of clarity and suddenly escape it.
Nevertheless, I can say that I am less scared now. I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes. I feel ready to write on this blog again--among other things that I was scared of before. Not only that, I am itching to try out some creative ideas I've been putting off. Because they are in half-baked mode now, I will not elaborate, but I promise: once they're underway, you will be the first to know...if you continue to read this blog.
For now, it will have to suffice for me to say that I am back, and I've got some stories to tell. Stay tuned for more.
Mary Margaret
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