It’s supposed to warm up, but right now, the porch, the lawn and presumably, the roads, are coated with a thin veneer of ice and frost.
Sure beats snow, and it’s already melting from the trees, making a soft staccato on the leaves below.
Last night, my friend Cathy served four of us an elegant Christmas Eve dinner: lox, broccoli with olive tapenade dip, apples and cheese, shrimp. And those were just the appetizers – the main course was crabcakes and Caesar salad.
Maybe it’s all that good seafood, or a semi-decent night’s sleep, but I’m feeling especially clear of mind this morning, enough so that I’m getting around to ruminating about the latest Religious Wrong tempest in a teapot.
I refer, of course, to the ridiculous pseudo-controversy about “Happy Holidays” versus “Merry Christmas”.
One poll reports that 30% of those interviewed are “offended” by the innocent greeting, “Happy Holidays”.
Guess some people just don’t have enough to worry about, do they?
I’m sorry, but I just don’t “get” this one at all.
To be honest, it smells like more anti-social flatulence from the well-nourished, relatively well-off vast Christian majority in America, some 80% of the population, the gastric result of over-indulgence in the bizarre belief that they are “persecuted”.
Who’s conducting pograms against Christians, I ask? Who’s burning crosses on Christian lawns? Who’s discriminating against them in employment or housing? Who’s forcing them to wear yellow crosses on their arms, or burning them at the stake, or waterboarding them in secret prisons?
The answer, of course, is no one.
Evidently some “Christians” need to invent excuses for feeling discriminated against, and “Happy Holidays” has become their latest whipping boy.
I find their self-righteousness especially galling on this particular point, especially this year, when the first day of Hanukkah and Christmas fall on December 25.
Also, as most everyone knows, scholars believe that Jesus was NOT born in the winter. This is based on speculation about when the astral phenomenon known as the Star of Bethlehem actually occurred.
Christmas was part of the early Christian church’s co-option of pagan holidays, Winter Solstice being the target at this time of year.
So, the whole premise of December 25 as Jesus’ birthday is a myth to start with, and shoving it down everyone else’s throat is a particular insult because it’s based on a lie.
On a more positive note, I have happy associations around the phrase “Happy Holidays”, and resent someone’s casting a dark cloud on it, especially for no good purpose.
A song of that title was a seasonal staple on the old Perry Como show from the 1950’s. Said TV program featured the thoroughly pleasant, totally innocuous and famously diffident Mr. Como, who shunned controversy as a cat shuns water. We used to watch this program with great enjoyment, the holiday shows being especially memorable.
No matter what someone’s religious persuasion may be, wishing people “Happy Holidays”, in person or in writing, is IMHO a darned sight more pleasant than the usual terse “Goodbye” or “Regards” or even “Sincerely”.
I have rather been enjoying this little soup