The Meaning of Christmas

Christmas

I have heard discussions and arguments all of my life, ad nauseum, about observance and means of well-wishing during the Christmas holidays. I have always considered them to be completely irrelevant and meaningless, produced and propagated by mean, narrow and/or small-minded people.

What exactly is Christmas? What is the real meaning of the holiday? Is it simply the date we use to denote and remember the (questionable) birth of Jesus the Christ? Or is it more than just that?

The simple truth is that people all over the world, dating back thousands of years before Jesus was born, were celebrating this season. It's importance actually has never had anything to do with Christianity at all. Other than the fact that the Roman church abrogated the Roman 'Pagan' holiday of the time, Saturnalia, in the 3^rd or 4^th Century AD.

As the church grew beyond the Roman Imperial boundaries, it absorbed into it's holiday the traditions from other peoples it came into contact with in a continuing effort to make itself more palatable to them. In essence, the Christian holiday season was an early and very successful marketing campaign which is still being used as such today.

Originally, the Northern peoples, for our purposes the best remembered today are the Vikings, would observe that the Sun was at its 'weakest point' on the Solstice, Dec 21. They would pray and make sacrifices on that day to strengthen the Sun and bring it back to health. Then they would hold a celebration when enough days had passed that they could observe that the days were beginning to lengthen. This is what brought the Holiday tradition to begin on Dec. 25^th. The Yule-tide was the Viking celebration of Odin's (the Sun) return.

Similarly, the Christmas Wreath, Holly and Mistletoe are from early Anglo-Saxon traditions. The Christmas tree is a left-over from the Roman Saturnalia. They would put images of Mithra on an evergreen tree along with notes containing their wishes for the new year. They would further decorate the tree to make it more comely to the 'good-spirits,' who would assumably bring the tree to Mithra’s attention.

So, to me when someone wishes me 'Happy Holidays,' or 'Merry Christmas,' I accept and return the sentiment conveyed rather than disagree and start an argument over belief systems. The truth is, regardless of how it's said or from whom, it's one person wishing another well-being and happiness through this season and the year to come. I'm all for happiness and well-being. I think the world, regardless of what religion you subscribe to if any, needs a lot more well-being and happiness.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to you all.

Fred

Entry for July 12, 2006 - My Wreck

I've just recently come back home from a nice stay at our regional Medical Center's ICU, preceded by a 25 minute flight in an ambulance type of helicopter, preceded by being trapped for approximately 3 hours in my upside-down, no longer viable, Kenworth truck. This was preceded by me spending about 25 seconds exploring whether it is humanly possible to remain viable after you lose control of your truck and go spinning madly off the side of the road. I felt somewhat like an agitator, in the washing machine, on the "Spin" cycle.
I won't go into detail about what happened, how I wrecked, and all that stuff. Suffice it to say that when the dust settled, it was 3 am, on the wrong side of a curve, beside a little 2 lane road, about 3 miles east of the nearest town, which has a population of about 50, not including dogs, or cows. I was sort-of upside down, caught by my left leg, which was trapped between the steering wheel, and the driver's seat. The rest of me was laying comfortably on the broken glass, on what had once been the roof of the truck, within easy reach of the front hole-where-the-windshield-used-to-be. Oh, did I mention that the diesel tank had ruptured, so I was getting a steady flow of fuel pouring down my body? And the power was still working. Everything you need for a nice fire; a source of fuel, Air, and a nice trapped person to burn. I threw my cigarettes, and lighter as far as I could!
Then I lay there, praying that God might find it within Himself to save me, as I'd left a lot of loose ends, and couldn't seem to extract myself from this mess. This lasted a good few minutes. Then, after about 10 minutes or so, a nice man stopped, and wondered if anyone was still in there, so I said yes, and would he call 911? He did. Thankfully cell service was working in the area at the moment, because it doesn't always. Then he asked me if he could call anyone else for me, so I had him call my dispatcher, then my son. At least that way, they'd know what was going on. Then he shined his cell phone in the truck, and I got my first look around, sort-of. Well, truthfully, my face was pretty well mush, and when he saw me in his cell-phone light, he dropped the phone, and said "Oh My God!" This is a wonderful confidence inspirer for those of you who may find yourselves helping people trapped in overturned wrecks. It didn't bother me, I knew I was pretty messed up. I couldn't see the damage to myself, but I could certainly feel it. After that he stayed back a
good 20 feet or so, until the Mineral Wells Fire/Rescue people got there. About 20 minutes.
The first one of them I met was a man named "Jerry". He introduced himself to me, got my assessment of the situation, passed that, along with what he could see and his much more professional assessment back out to some other people around us, and told me, "We're going to get you out of here, as soon as we can, and no matter how long or short a time that is, I'm right her with you, ok?" Jerry was my constant companion throughout the rest of my entrapment. Every time they'd get ready to cut, or pry on the truck, Jerry'd be laying over me, spreading his bunker coat, telling me what was happening and that it'd be ok. At one point, I told Jerry I liked him, but he was going to have to ease up or go on a diet!
The other fellow who was pretty much in constant attendance to me was Chris. I'm assuming Chris is a Paramedic? Anyway, he's EMS, and he started an IV on me right away, and got me some Oxygen to breathe. Before they got me out, I went through two and a half bottles of Oxygen. It was a tight space but I was always in physical contact with one or the other of them throughout the rest of the ordeal, and at times, both of them.
The first thing they did was crack the passenger door open. I'd seen the safety triangle box, which weighs about 10 pounds, hanging between the door and the passenger seat above my head. I pointed it out to them before they popped the door so that maybe someone would move it? Jerry assured me they'd get the box out of there then he put a blanket over me to protect me from flying glass and debris, then they popped the door open with the "jaws of life". This was the only time Jerry went outside and of course I got hit by the box. Oh, well, it only fell a couple feet, so I figured at this point, no big deal. Later, I found out I had a 6" gash on the left side of my scalp, and my skull was cracked. My left leg was really going to sleep by now, so I told them about that. They cut out the gear shifter, and that gave me some relief. Then they cut the steering wheel off, and with them pulling me, I was able to straighten up somewhat, but found to the dismay of all, especially me, that my leg was still trapped between the dash-board and the driver's seat.
They began the next part of the rescue by trying to push the dash away from my leg, but as they got it away from my leg above the knee, it gouged into my shin. Kind of like a see-saw. No luck there. So, after some observation, and a little consultation, they decided the best thing to do would be to cut the seat away. The only problem with that was there's a back wall the seat was up against. So, they
stabilized me and the truck, which was in serious danger of rolling completely and crushing Jerry and I, as best they could and then proceeded to cut away the back wall of the cab. Most of this time, I was lying as quietly as I could, talking with Jerry and Chris. Jerry was holding my hand, and Chris was taking my heart-rate, and blood-pressure, and just trying to keep me calm.
Finally they got the back wall out, and were cutting the seat away from the back of my leg. As we were talking, Jerry was telling me what they were going to do and what I needed to do in order to help; I overheard Chris say something about the "helicopter". On asking, I learned that I was to be care-flighted to John Peter-Smith Hospital in Ft. Worth. This is the County Hospital, so I made sure they knew I had insurance! And! I wasn't really that bad, was I? Chris told me no, I wasn't that bad and that the reason for JPS wasn't because they're a county hospital, but that they have the best unit for compression/confined space injury. This was when I realized I'd been partially crushed, but not to what extent yet.
So, that's what they were worried about! They told me that confined space injury, or long term compression resulted in erratic heartbeat, and blood-pressure problems, in addition to the cuts, and abrasions. Chris told me that I could go wherever I wanted, of course, but he recommended JPS in this instance. I had to agree with him, sometimes you just have to bow to the experts, and these guys hadn't stepped wrong with me in over 2 hours.
So, they finally got the seat out from under my leg, rolled me onto a buckboard, got me all taped and tied down, and carried me to a waiting ambulance, where they took off my boots, and belt, and began cutting off my clothes, and assessing the injuries they'd only been able to see dimly, if at all, before. On the way to the Ambulance I asked if anyone had taken photos, and asked for a copy of them. I wish I’d gotten them.
The final total of injuries? Well, let’s see. Face torn, with broken maxillary bone (That’s the one that holds your nose in place, and protects your sinuses,) sinuses permanently damaged. Cracked skull, on the left side of head. Left arm severely lacerated, (that is: severe cuts, and tears) left rib-cage crushed (that means the ribs broke in the front and the back, both) with bruised left lung and heart, bruised and compressed intestines/ colon/ stomach, bruised left hip, severe lacerations to left knee and lower leg, compression injury just above the left knee, severe damage to right knee, and last but not least, two vertebra impacted, C-5, and L-3 with resultant burning pain in my legs, and numbness/loss of sensitivity in my back and legs.

What if...

What if they finally unearth the Garden of Eden and find that it was a prehistoric variety of the modern trailer-park? Prehistory's Dis...er... Fantasy-world? THAT'S IT!!! Adam was, let's call him Walt for this discussion, and Eve was Princess (insert name here). The Ancient-Alien-relatives had a Terra-forming Exhibit up for the kids to play with and so... the whole God/Bible/Creationism Myth was born at the Garden of Eden Theme Park and Tourist Center.
Four Thousand years from now, someone is going to come along and proclaim himself to be the Son of Dis..er Fantasy Man, the Great God also known as 'Mickey!' A religion will be started, of course the Government will see it as a covert attempt to dislodge the Republican majority and all Dis...er... Fantasyites will be sent to the football matches to be trampled. Additionally, they can be hung as Fantasy Roman Torches due to the brownouts. They'll pray to Mickey to save them, to take them on a cruise to the never sorrowful and always joyous Land of Dis...er...Fantasy! 
Over time, the Dis...er...Fantasyites will take control and will declare all previous forms of God-Worship to be outlawed, as well as any form of Democracy. Theocracy all the way in the name of the great Mickey! The world of mankind will be reshaped! Children will go to schools where they learn the Doctrine of the 'M-i-c-k-e-y... Club.' They'll learn that it's OK to persecute and kill anyone they find that they even suspect to worship any God other than Walt and His Divine Fantasy Progeny.
A few hundred years later, out of the Desert will come a man claiming to be the Prophet of the Warners. He'll Declare that although Mickey was a great Prophet, that the true and only God is Elmer. His followers will call the Dis...er...Fantasyites Wabbits, in a derogatory fashion and go hunting them, and the Dis...er...Fantasyites will declare war on the Elmerites and put forth a campaign to take back the Holy Lands of Anaheim and Kissimee from the dirty Elmerites, thus will the 'New Crusades' begin.... © Fred.C.Pierce 7.20.2011 All Rights Reserved

Tripartite Being

I’ve spent years in consideration of this subject. Thinking about God as Tripartite Being and Man having been made in 'God’s Image.'

TO my mind, the question is: Was Man made in God’s Image? Or was God made in Man’s image? Our ancient ancestors were some very shrewd people for all that they lived in the late stone/early bronze-age.

In the common Christian view, God is represented as being three distinct characters who share one 'Godhood.' 'The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.' We can reduce that to Mind, Body, Soul (or spirit)
We are reflected in the image of God in another way, as well. In Human marriage, we also take on the aspect of mirroring God, as told to us in the bible. Husband/Protector, Wife/Nurturer and the spirit of love that the two engender.

The ancients who made those connections, realized a basic fact, Nature builds on threes. A structure of three is provably the most stable. Pyramids are four triangular structures, joined at the points; in Chemistry, there is a naturally occurring complex hydrocarbon molecule called the “Bucky Ball” after Physicist R. Buckminster Fuller. Bucky Fuller also invented the Geodesic Dome, and other triangular-based shapes. Fuller showed us that the ’Bucky Ball’ can be created and that it will hold and store molecules. Without the rule of threes, we wouldn’t have ever invented triangulation. Triangulation is the basic method we still use to determine how far away something is. Surveyors use it to determine lines. Without that, we’d have never invented the Astrolabe and become aware of Latitudes, or later, the Sextant, so that we could calculate both Latitude and Longitude We wouldn't even have modern GPS without the theory of threes.

So, moving along. We perceive ourselves as a three-part Being. We are made up of our Body, Mind and Spirit. All three parts demand attention and growth. We feed and water our bodies, we exercise them, we take care of them. We strengthen or at least maintain them to some degree of meaningful health. We take care of our  minds. We learn and discuss and experiment. We imagine a thing, then we exercise our minds to discover how to make that thing, we do well in taking care of our bodies and minds in general. Our spirit is a completely different matter. We spend our whole lives on 'Spiritual Quests.' We try to grow it, we revere things that we find  inspirational. Over the history of Human-kind, we've created  Gods and whole Societies in order to serve them. We've worshiped these Gods as if they were real Beings, we’ve devoted untold lives and untold amounts of blood and sorrow to them over the Millennia.

Some people find a balance of Peace with religion, some can’t reconcile the worship of an improbable God with the reality of the physical world around them. Others find their balance in Meditation, in Yoga or in creating art or buildings or whatever. There are many ways to find spiritual balance, to grow and nurture the spirit within us. Yet more and more people are searching for that balance. Most have found some sort of balance, but are constantly questing for something that fits them better. Some have given up on their quest for spiritual balance and are in a perpetual state of unbalance.

What really disturbs me is that when you find a state of spiritual balance, it is often within a Religious Denomination of some sort. A social 'Gathering' of people who have come to the same belief as you have. I can see that it is comforting for the ones who believe. Others find a balance in Nature and the world around them. They don’t see evidence of a god. They don’t  feel animosity toward those who have, they simply don’t see the world in the same way. Very often the people who have found their balance in an 'Organized Religious' affiliation become adamant that anyone who sees things differently than they do are stupid or recalcitrant or just plain ignorant, and so they take it upon themselves to ’educate’ the others and ’bring them into the fold,’ as it were. It is, after all, Human Nature to want your friends and family in the same social grouping as you are. Unfortunately for the religious person’s balance, the non-religious person, who is perfectly happy where he or she is at, reacts badly to the perception of being forced. Frequently these people tried a church environment and found it to be spiritually stifling for them. So arguments, back and forth, ensue. At times, very bitter arguments, even animosity and  much bloodshed have occurred in these disputes.

Personally, I think that an organization that is founded on bloodshed, restrictive behaviors, and forced monetary donations are not healthy and although many people within the structures seem to find the spiritual support they crave, overall they are contributing to an Evil Organization. The Church Organization, large or small, seeks to control it’s members through the shame of possibly having committed a ’sin.’ It controls them through peer-pressure. Members shouldn’t be seen with ’those people,’ or ’that guy.’ Some restrict singing or dancing, some restrict drinking alcoholic beverages and/or eating meats or certain varieties of meats. Some proclaim that women must dress or wear their hair in a certain way. It’s all about conformity and creating a peer group to keep members in line. It puts one into ’sheep’ mode and makes the whole group easier to control. Church Organizations are, ultimately, in the business of controlling people. If you control them, you have their wealth, you have their backing and support for whatever you choose to do. All of the great religions display this behavior. Taking advantage of people who simply want to feed, grow and balance their spirits and usually aren’t even aware of their true need.

Religions and Religious Societies are responsible for almost all of everything that is wrong in the world today. Wars, famines, gangs, drug-usage, slavery, avarice, gluttony and many more can be laid directly at the feet of religion. There was a time when religions were purposed to do good things, to support and aid communities, to provide structure where people could help each other in their lives. That time is long-gone. In the 11th, 12th and 13th Centuries, the Popes declared a Holy war to ’take back the Holy Land’ from the Muslims. Thus the Crusades ensued. Christians and Muslims have been fighting every since and the current series of events, from the 1970’s through to today are nothing short of a new Crusade/Jihad. The Christian church, starting with Catholicism, has a history of refuting scientific discovery, of keeping it’s people in a Feudal or even slave-state system as much as is possible. Of seeking out and destroying anyone who disagrees with their Philosophies; Waldensians, Cathars, Armenians, Jews. They teach you that their God is a 'God of Love.' That He(It) is 'Love incarnate.' Nothing could be further from the truth. You can see it in their actions, their own bible tells us, that “By their deeds, ye shall know them.” They are bigoted, recalcitrant, hateful of anyone who disagrees with them, claim to be keeping to a philosophy of ‘right-to-life’ but only where unborn babies are concerned. Those babies have a ‘right to live,’ but homosexuals  don’t, neither do criminals or people of other faiths, even people of other sects within the Worldwide Christian community. They all deal together and talk together but at the same time, they despise each other and gladly proclaim that the others, along with everyone else who disagrees, will burn forever in a lake of fire kindly provided to them by their God who 'Loves Us All,' while they dance and rejoice on the walls of the “New Jerusalem.” What about the Jews? They are the actual descendants of Abraham, Master Goatherd and the 'Father' of  the big three religions. When not trying to eradicate each other, both the Christians and Islamists have been seriously engaged in (and, at times, unified in...) making every attempt to commit Jewish Genocide. All of the current Major Religions permit, even condone, slavery and rape. They preach execution by stoning for the most innocuous offense. AND in some places in the world today, they still carry these religious executions out. They do it regularly and openly in the Islamic sphere of influence. A lot of Christians are upset that Islam has their religious law inclusive of their governmental law. They live by a code-of-law known as Sharia. It’s barbaric. What the Christians don’t tell you is that if they had their way, the 'Western World' (well really the whole world) would be living under Levitical Law which is the same, with a little different wording.

Now, imagine the spiritual growth and harmony of a world where mankind accepts all of the differences that go into making us unique individuals, invited and accepted each other as fellow Human-Beings with similarities and differences that make us all unique. Imagine that Mankind was able to harness that spirit that we share between us all and, in accord, utilize our differences as strengths and encouraged each other to explore, to build, to search, to learn, and share without threat of censure or death simply for holding to a belief or for being a different color or speaking a different language.
Just imagine what the world of Man could be if we would only accept the value of each and every other person and actually work together to set things right.
How far could a person go if they were a fully capable, fully 'Integrated Being,' someone who’s body, mind, and spirit were in harmony and at peace.
My name is Fred and I am a tripartite Human Being.
©FredC.Pierce 7.19.2011
All rights reserved

As a boy of the Fifties and Sixties era and raised in a Fundamentalist Christian church, there was no sex-education as such, but of course it was subjective. In our system, we were taught that good boys save themselves for the 'right' woman and respect all girls and women as ladies, unless they proved to us, by word or deed, that they weren't. (however they were supposed to do that...) As Americans we all, male and female, inherited the very aspects of the Puritans that got them run out of England and Europe and have adopted that as our National Morality and it's been fucking up generations of Americans forever after. This was one of my very early disagreements with 'Holy Mother Church.' "God" supposedly gave us this playground that feels wonderful to use and in complimentary sexes so that we can all play with each other's toys to mutual satisfaction, then in 'His Infinite Wisdom,' said, "Hand's off, boys and girls! You can only do that behind closed and locked doors and only in preset arrangements which will be confining and intolerable. Furthermore, if any of you ever step over the lines I'm drawing, then you will be ostracized from your community, then for good measure, you will be publicly thrown naked into an everlasting lake of fire to burn forever and ever, amen. Now! Aren't you glad I created you and gave you this playground to never, ever use? Praise Me!" I thought, "God is a BASTARD!!!" I used to pray that He'd take the testosterone drive away, or at least reduce it to more manageable levels. How could I be such a good Christian boy and still get a hard-on when I accidently (or not so accidentally) opened the Sears catalog to ladies foundation garments? It was torture! Oh yeah and we can't forget, it's an even bigger sin to "cast your seed on the ground." So, God gave us all sex organs then explicitly told us "No Sex! and No Masturbation either! Enjoy, people! I'm off to Vacation now at Hedonism, the Planet" See? God was a Bastard! Then I thought, "Well OK, He created Satan to be His fall-guy. If we're all gonna blame this on God and call him a Bastard over this, it might as well all be 'Satan's fault.'" But then, Satan started blaming God for it too! "It wasn't me! Go have all of the sex you want to have! I didn't say that, it was that Big-Assed Bastard up there on the Golden Throne!" So God gave us STD's with the idea that this would stop us and close the playground He'd created for us not to use, but it didn't work!! Why, you ask? The Trojans, in league with Satan, created balloons to fit over men's phallii, thereby stopping God in His tracks on the STD front! So God retaliated by starting the Hellenic wars and trying to burn the Trojan factory to the ground. We now call that the seige of Troy and boor young people to death making them read the Iliad and then the Oddyssey, but those stories are subterfuge, created by the Big Bastard  In The Sky to disguise the real nature of the thing.
We are all sexual beings. We all have the right as to how or whether or not to use our sexuality, and to engage in sexual behavior or not. As a kid, the church indoctrinated me to believe something their 'God' gave me was wrong and shameful. As an adult, I've learned to put them and that far behind me.

Thoughts on growing up Seventh Day Adventist

I wrote this in response to a particularly nasty individual who hadn't grown up in the Fundamentalist system that I had and wanted to argue with me about it.


"I think that what some on this site don't truly understand and in some cases even care about is that a lot of us - all of the ones raised in the sAdventist school system spent absolutely years hunched over a desk, being force-fed the White woman's drivel. (Ellen G. White, the purported Prophet[profit?] of the Seventh Day Adventist Cult). We became adept at reading 19th Century prose, as well as what was known in the 17th Century as "The King's English." We, every one of us, hated it all! We also were forced into a 19th Century mode of thinking, and writing, which we (on the site in question) have mostly all rejected, and have had varying degrees of success in overcoming. We were also indoctrinated (read 'brainwashed') in militantism as a tool. We were bent so as to use it as a 'Defense of the Faith,'  which made us different from everyone else. The other kids most like us were the Jewish children who had their own version of this same hell in their schuls and the Catholic kids who were force-fed Catechism. On the other hand... As children of a cult, we had a lot in common with the Mormon kids. All of the above were forbidden to us as 'The Enemy.' As a matter of fact, we were forbidden to them as well.

I revile the White woman, her husband, all of their compatriots and all that they stood for. Those people, even though long-dead, wrote the framework for the system that largely stole my childhood, certainly any joy I might have had. They created the system that forced me, personally, to restrict my thinking to a very small box for years. They were the force behind the system that tried to do these things at any rate, and succeeded well with most of my cohorts. I was lucky because I had recourse to a public library, which was actually forbidden to us according to 'Church Rules,' a stubborn streak that led me to defy my parents and leave their home at 13 and a native intelligence that questioned everything skeptically. Nonetheless, I was deeply, emotionally scarred by their heinous system.

I, and many of us in this group, spent agonizing years under this system and rebelled and ultimately rejected it. Then we had to learn from scratch how to think new thoughts and see new ways of doing and saying things. This too was emotional agony. Again, we have scars. We needed a forum where we can express the hurts we had, where we can laugh at the people who created that pain that we are still working to overcome. My compliments to Stephen Wold for creating this forum for us.

Some of you in this group have never experienced this. You may have experienced some parallel to it but not the same issues we had. Some of you may consider yourselves above us because you don't have those emotional scars that we do. You're not. You are, in fact, deluding yourselves and wasting our time. I would suggest that when we start talking or making fun of something deeply ingrained in the system that we grew up being tortured in, that you give it a pass and hopefully learn something. If you find it distasteful, then remember that so did we find it distasteful to be robbed of a large part of our childhood.