I was just watching the news on TV. The American people are really getting into the Christmas spirit! I watched the film of people amassed outside of a store awaiting the opening of the doors. As soon as the doors opened, they were pushing and shoving. One man started beating another. That's the spirit!
I do not "do" Christmas anymore because it does not honor Christ. It is about shopping and shopping. It doesn't even remotely have anything to do with Jesus anymore, as far as I can tell.
I looked into the origins of the holiday and here is what my 1963 American Peoples Encyclopedia said, in part:
A festival was celebrated at this season, however, long before it was held sacred as the birthday of Jesus Christ. The Saturnalia of the Romans and the winter festival of the heathen Britons were both celebrated about December 25, as was the later Roman festival in honor of the sun god Mithra, which gave it the name "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun." This name was given a symbolic interpretation after the festival was adopted by the Christian church in the fourth century as the anniversary of Christ's birth.
Many customs associated with the Christmas season have pagan origins.
The above was written before Christmas became politically incorrect and lacks the shocking details of the origins of most of the customs practiced at this time of year. People generally are just doing what their moms and dads, and their grandparents did for generations. They don't know why they are doing it; it's tradition.
It reminds me of the story about the woman preparing to bake a Christmas ham. She cut both ends off of the ham before placing it in the pan. Her husband asked her, "Honey, why did you cut the ends off the ham?" She replied, "I don't know. My mother always did it." So he asks his mother-in-law why she did it and the mother-in-law says, "I don't know. My mother always did it." So he asks his wife's grandmother why she always cut the ends off of the ham. She said "I cut off the ends so it would fit into the small baking pan."
We do things by tradition which sometimes make no sense, but we do them anyway and pass them on to the next generation. When we do these things innocently, there is no harm. But once we know that the meat doesn't need the ends cut off because the pan is big enough to hold it, should we still cut off the ends?
After I learned more than I ever wanted to know about Christmas, I could no longer take part in the festival. I try to honor Christ every day. I often read the account of his birth in the scriptures and I marvel at the obedience of Mary. It was not an easy thing to have a baby out of wedlock in those days. She literally risked her life. And her fiance could have dumped her if he chose to think that the angel which spoke to him was not real. There is no way I would believe an angel would come to me in a dream. I would just figure it was a dream of wishful thinking.
Did you know that the Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower were very religious and they didn't celebrate Christmas because they thought of it as a pagan holiday? Christmas was illegal in early colonial life.
The Pilgrims didn't come here with the simple idea of founding colonies here. There were already Christian settlers in the New World before the Pilgrims got here in 1620. There was a mission in Florida in 1541 and one in Maine in 1604. The so-called Pilgrims came here to practice and propagate their own brand of Christianity, which was basic and pure. They relied heavily on prayer and believed that God was in charge. Their stated mission in the Mayflower Compact, in part, was to spread the Gospel of Christ. Even though half of their group died during the first winter, they held to their faith and their mission. They held regular religious observances, but Christmas wasn't one of them.
To learn more about the origins of Christmas, Google Michael Rood and Rood Awakening. He has humorous video on the subject on his website.
Without any research, just look around and try to find a connection between the Biblical Christ and Christmas. I don't see it. If you do, let me know. Open my eyes. In the meantime, I will not participate in the festivities.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Listening to the rabbi
I was listening to a rabbi (teacher) talk about generational sin. One of the things he spoke of was eating disorders. Having suffered with some eating disorders myself, my ears perked up.
He said that it is all about control. People who were over-controlled by a parent tend to have problems in this area. It is a way of having control over yourself that no one else can mess with. Like they can badger you into eating, but they can't make you digest it!
In teens, it is about rebellion. You know the drill.
In adults, it is about life feeling like it is not being run by you. Making your weight go down 30 pounds in a month, you feel like you have some power. You are not happy with your life. You want to change things, but you can't. You want to control all the people around you but they don't cooperate. Your hair is gray, your bills are overdue, your kid didn't make the honor roll, the dog pooped on the floor! No matter how many tirades you carry on with, they just don't knuckle down to you and your demands. Everything seems out of control. In truth it is just out of YOUR control and this is what you can't deal with. Eat a huge dinner so you look normal to everyone and after dinner barf it all into the toilet. Who cares if your teeth are rotting out? At least you won't get fat. No, on the contrary, you will get skinny! As skinny as you want and they can't stop you!
The rabbi spoke only a couple of sentences about it but my mind has been kicking it around for hours since.
I had two bouts with purging. Both times it lasted a couple of months. Both times I had experienced emotional trauma just before it hit. Thankfully, both times I stopped without needing any kind of treatment. (I have no faith in the medical community and I think, had I gotten professional help, I'd be on meds and still battling the problem.)
I know a control-freak who is like Herr General around her house and is always finding reasons to yell at her hapless family. She is as skinny as a rail. She orders her husband around like a slave in the old south. She complains to her ever-present mother about all of her misery. And her over-controlling mother gives her advice on how to manage her household with an iron fist and feeds into the whole thing by pointing out the faults of all the miserable, ungrateful family members. It's a sight to behold!
Little do either of them know that the more they want to control all the people around them the more helpless they feel. There you see why it is called a generational curse. But it is not passed on just by environmental factors; it is also passed by DNA. So even if the younger shrew was adopted by someone else she still would have had the shrew gene. And unless she "repented" purposefully, she would also pass it on to her daughters. In fact her oldest daughter already show the sign of shrewhood. She is very bossy with all those around her, even her father, and she is only 14. To some people it may appear she is mature and responsible, however she is trying to control things which she has no business controlling (her father, for instance). When she gets into the real world and sees that not everyone wants to follow orders, she will exhibit physical and emotional signs of frustration, such as eating disorders, panic attacks (which both her mother and grandmother experience), and who-knows-what-sort of relationship problems.
I also had a controlling mother and I was just like the two shrews I described. I repented to YHWH and I am still working on it... daily. I divorced three husbands who I couldn't control totally. If there ever is another husband, I will work on being a partner instead of a boss.
Enough about this. I've got to go bake some bread. Oh yeah... Happy Thanksgiving. Don't forget to thank God for all the everyday things... like just the freedom to read stuff on the internet! There is always plenty for which to be thankful if you stop and think... Bless you.
He said that it is all about control. People who were over-controlled by a parent tend to have problems in this area. It is a way of having control over yourself that no one else can mess with. Like they can badger you into eating, but they can't make you digest it!
In teens, it is about rebellion. You know the drill.
In adults, it is about life feeling like it is not being run by you. Making your weight go down 30 pounds in a month, you feel like you have some power. You are not happy with your life. You want to change things, but you can't. You want to control all the people around you but they don't cooperate. Your hair is gray, your bills are overdue, your kid didn't make the honor roll, the dog pooped on the floor! No matter how many tirades you carry on with, they just don't knuckle down to you and your demands. Everything seems out of control. In truth it is just out of YOUR control and this is what you can't deal with. Eat a huge dinner so you look normal to everyone and after dinner barf it all into the toilet. Who cares if your teeth are rotting out? At least you won't get fat. No, on the contrary, you will get skinny! As skinny as you want and they can't stop you!
The rabbi spoke only a couple of sentences about it but my mind has been kicking it around for hours since.
I had two bouts with purging. Both times it lasted a couple of months. Both times I had experienced emotional trauma just before it hit. Thankfully, both times I stopped without needing any kind of treatment. (I have no faith in the medical community and I think, had I gotten professional help, I'd be on meds and still battling the problem.)
I know a control-freak who is like Herr General around her house and is always finding reasons to yell at her hapless family. She is as skinny as a rail. She orders her husband around like a slave in the old south. She complains to her ever-present mother about all of her misery. And her over-controlling mother gives her advice on how to manage her household with an iron fist and feeds into the whole thing by pointing out the faults of all the miserable, ungrateful family members. It's a sight to behold!
Little do either of them know that the more they want to control all the people around them the more helpless they feel. There you see why it is called a generational curse. But it is not passed on just by environmental factors; it is also passed by DNA. So even if the younger shrew was adopted by someone else she still would have had the shrew gene. And unless she "repented" purposefully, she would also pass it on to her daughters. In fact her oldest daughter already show the sign of shrewhood. She is very bossy with all those around her, even her father, and she is only 14. To some people it may appear she is mature and responsible, however she is trying to control things which she has no business controlling (her father, for instance). When she gets into the real world and sees that not everyone wants to follow orders, she will exhibit physical and emotional signs of frustration, such as eating disorders, panic attacks (which both her mother and grandmother experience), and who-knows-what-sort of relationship problems.
I also had a controlling mother and I was just like the two shrews I described. I repented to YHWH and I am still working on it... daily. I divorced three husbands who I couldn't control totally. If there ever is another husband, I will work on being a partner instead of a boss.
Enough about this. I've got to go bake some bread. Oh yeah... Happy Thanksgiving. Don't forget to thank God for all the everyday things... like just the freedom to read stuff on the internet! There is always plenty for which to be thankful if you stop and think... Bless you.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Scams Scams and More Scams
Why are there so many people trying to get my hard-earned money with their scams? I must get 3 dozen email scams every day. There are widows of foreign dignitaries who would love to give me millions if I would send just a few thousand so they can get their husband's money out of some legal tangle. There are people who don't want one cent from me, but they will help me earn pounds of money with my computer if I send them my credit card number to cover postage and handling... It must be working for them if they keep doing it.
Cape Cod Blues
Old Cape Cod... When Patty Page sang "You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod" it was a different place.
I was born here, raised here, spent most of my life here. I HATE IT HERE!!
The Cape used to be a very nice place to live. It has changed. You see, there were all these people who came to visit here. They lived in places that sucked. They would visit here and think "Oh what a lovely place with such nice people." They would go back home and say "Boy oh boy! Home sure sucks" After years of this back and forth, a huge herd of people from the sucky places all decided to move to the Cape. The only problem was that when they moved from the sucky places, they dragged along with them the very thing that made the sucky places suck so much. What was that, you ask? They all brought their own sucky selves!! Now Cape Cod sucks! It is an unfriendly, snobby place just like they made their old towns to be. I have been here for 55 years and I see the newbies and all the suckiness they cart around with them.
A week ago I went to a secret town in an unnamed state. I will not tell you where it is because I am afraid when I tell you about it, you will want to move there and you might be one of those sucky people. I want to move there and I don't want to have to leave because of another suckyperson invasion.
This place I visited has the most delightful people. When you make eye contact with them, they smile and give you a warm hello. When you have a conversation with anyone they say you should move to their town and they say they would love to have you. And they mean it.
I went to a church service while there and after the service was swarmed by all these smiley faces and handshakes telling me I was welcome. When I first started going to my Cape Cod church, I almost felt like an intruder.
When I came back from my trip to Nicepeopletown, I did a little experiment. I smiled at strangers here to see if they would smile back. Out of about 20 people I got one smile. Most people looked away as though they thought I might be dangerous. In Nicepeopletown, They smile first. They don't wait for you to smile. And they don't flee in fear if you say hello in passing.
I have decided I will move to Nicepeopletown in about a year or so. I have to sell my house to buy a place there. Speaking of which, you can get a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house there for about $100,000. Here that would cost you about $350,000 for a place with postage stamp size rooms. You can get land there for $1,500 an acre!! Here it is about $200,000 for one acre in a cramped neighborhood. There it is easy to find a 20 acre parcel.
So I will not tell anyone here where Nicepeopletown is lest a flock of suckypeople visit there and say "Oh what a lovely place with such nice people!" and make me have to move again.
Do you wanna buy my house?
I was born here, raised here, spent most of my life here. I HATE IT HERE!!
The Cape used to be a very nice place to live. It has changed. You see, there were all these people who came to visit here. They lived in places that sucked. They would visit here and think "Oh what a lovely place with such nice people." They would go back home and say "Boy oh boy! Home sure sucks" After years of this back and forth, a huge herd of people from the sucky places all decided to move to the Cape. The only problem was that when they moved from the sucky places, they dragged along with them the very thing that made the sucky places suck so much. What was that, you ask? They all brought their own sucky selves!! Now Cape Cod sucks! It is an unfriendly, snobby place just like they made their old towns to be. I have been here for 55 years and I see the newbies and all the suckiness they cart around with them.
A week ago I went to a secret town in an unnamed state. I will not tell you where it is because I am afraid when I tell you about it, you will want to move there and you might be one of those sucky people. I want to move there and I don't want to have to leave because of another suckyperson invasion.
This place I visited has the most delightful people. When you make eye contact with them, they smile and give you a warm hello. When you have a conversation with anyone they say you should move to their town and they say they would love to have you. And they mean it.
I went to a church service while there and after the service was swarmed by all these smiley faces and handshakes telling me I was welcome. When I first started going to my Cape Cod church, I almost felt like an intruder.
When I came back from my trip to Nicepeopletown, I did a little experiment. I smiled at strangers here to see if they would smile back. Out of about 20 people I got one smile. Most people looked away as though they thought I might be dangerous. In Nicepeopletown, They smile first. They don't wait for you to smile. And they don't flee in fear if you say hello in passing.
I have decided I will move to Nicepeopletown in about a year or so. I have to sell my house to buy a place there. Speaking of which, you can get a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house there for about $100,000. Here that would cost you about $350,000 for a place with postage stamp size rooms. You can get land there for $1,500 an acre!! Here it is about $200,000 for one acre in a cramped neighborhood. There it is easy to find a 20 acre parcel.
So I will not tell anyone here where Nicepeopletown is lest a flock of suckypeople visit there and say "Oh what a lovely place with such nice people!" and make me have to move again.
Do you wanna buy my house?
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