Sire Elrick

Politics. Rants. Rhetoric. Watch for mudslinging.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

For the Little Engine

There is fear in this country of trying. This fear is put into us at an early age by the way our structures are set up – we want to win, but if we don’t do well, few people will stand up to the tide of pressure which builds to either try again, or to question why they were being pressured. By simply allowing themselves to be swallowed up by feeling incompetent in one area, they are only allowing for their incompetence to be proved right. However, if they do take a jab at it, it shows at least courage to be noticed, even if they are wrong, considering the interpretation of whichever arm of interpretation their opposition uses. However – the one thing they need to remember is even though their opposition may be upheld by a system of thought, and even though they might be extremely well versed in it – it doesn’t mean their opposition are wholly right. They might hold a portion of the truth, but even they are as human as the mode of thinking which they are repeating. There is an equal ability for you to be just as right as they are. However – the whole dichotomy is based upon rules, a system. So if you are wrong, you are wrong within the system, not because that’s the way it truly is. Which is why systems need to be checked – either for the way you want to be involved in the system, know you will not have all the right answers all of the time, or find a way to reform the system, or find a new system.

An Odd to Linus, or Merry Chri$tma$

The traditions of organized religion are used as an excuse. It’s a power struggle. If a religion is in power itself, then it imposes it’s will on the other people – but of that religion.
This is why people wanted to get away from religious persecution. There is an exclusionary factor which makes it hard for anyone to “be a member” of any religion. By doing this however, you don’t give the people within the religion much room to move. This restrains them, and if they fall from grace, they feel chastised and unwilling to go back to the standards of which they would seek to better themselves in the first place. The “religion” ends up ruling, and the people loose. They become slaves to “tradition” and have no way of finding a way to get out of the problem which David faced – no matter how well he did the rest of his time, no matter how much glory he gave to God, all the things God would want for him – the one time he really screwed up, he was not forgiven. But by screwing up it proved he was human – all the prophets were essentially human. There was something about their nature which held them back from being perfect. They were called by God from the masses to be His spokespeople, so to speak, but they cold only do so much. Moses ended up talking through Aaron most of the time. Jeremiah didn’t think he could get through to the people because of his message.
Jesus is the only one of whom would not be held back. Whether or not his birth was what we think it was, the one thing he could teach us was not to be held back by our fears in and of humanity. And with that gained knowledge of freedom be able to free others from their shackles, shackles which can be real and imagined. Only by testing these walls of fire can we try to stand up to the problems of this world, things like the fears which have been perpetuated by the standing of “religion.”
Organized religion takes what should have been the teachings of these people, or teachings for certain events, and makes them into poor representations of a rule structure which essentially re-creates the bonds which we were trying to get rid of in the first place. However, since they have the history of being freeing in their beginning, we feel must use them or fail. If we don’t even want to try them because we know we will fail, then we don’t want to learn about the religion at all, and blame the one who told us these things in the first place, God. God becomes the scapegoat for our society, even though it is the evolution of society which has brought out “the worst in God.” We become immobilized by fear, we are blinded by our narrowness of interpretation of these traditions, and we don’t want to listen to some crazy lunatic standing behind a pulpit telling us how to live our lives. How do they really know? Is this the word of God, or is it the word of a tradition long muddled from human interpretation?
The only way to get out of this bind is by trial and fire. By questioning, and being willing to be proved wrong, but to continue trying nonetheless, there is a possibility to learn how to see these interpretations for what they are, and start hearing the good that is in them as well as the mush. The fear will slowly be relinquished from the people and tradition which has been set for so long. The true being to not just fear, or respect, or to honor, but to be in awe of is God – by not trying, by not living your life, by giving into the absurdity of these traditions and not wanting to believe solely because these interpretations only give out a tinny, smallish reflection of what is something more real, something almost tangible, something that is greater than you, me, or anyone – is only leaving you out in the cold. Does this life really have something to offer if it doesn’t allow you to really live it to the fullest? What does this shackling system of Capitalism really have that would make us happy?
The way Christmas is set up at this moment only perpetuates the religion of Capitalism. By only looking at what you can get for others or what you can get for yourself only shows the superficial layer of what Christmas is about. We talk of the gift giving as giving of ourselves, or giving in the spirit of Jesus’ birthday. He got presents, so why shouldn’t we give and get? St. Nicholas is a great example to show the need to give to the children, because Christ himself was born this day, a babe in swaddling clothes, and he would talk of children’s importance in his teachings. We are all still children at heart, and want to continue the magic which we had at those young years. We know that it grows old as we grow old, but we still hold onto these traditions because of that original promise of magic. Not every year afterwards like that can bring back the fun of what we had as children, yet the whole amazing part about those beginning Christmases weren’t necessarily the things we got, but rather the newness of it all to us. What we remember more than what we got was how we felt, the tingle that the beginning of the season brought in with the first winds of snow, or the first sung round of “Deck the Halls.” That is something which should be a lesson for how to keep looking into the real meaning of what we perceive as Christmas as we grow older – there is more “magic” than the simple traditions we hold tell us.
However, when the traditions are kept alive by something which does not pertain to the actual meaning anymore, then the holiday is not holy, it is merely a “bank holiday.” Holy implies a lesson learned, a broadening of horizons, a filling of the soul. Bank holidays merely represent a day off in reward for doing a good job the rest of the year, and here’s a butt load of gifts to show how much we appreciate your diligence. It falls flat. The true magic of the holidays should be in the wonder of the holiday, the amazement of new things found out, something quite awesome to behold, and the importance of the true needs in life to be met.