Tuesday, December 25, 2018

What Christmas Means To Me. Again.



It's Christmas Day in Canada. A day for me to give thanks for living in a country still so peaceful and so beautiful.

And a day when I rerun a post I wrote years ago to try to explain what Christmas means to me.

I was going to write something different this year, because so many things have changed, and the reasons I wrote that post have been lost in the passage of time.

But in the end I didn't.

So for one last time, here we go again...



It's Christmas Day, and although I'm an atheist, and I believe that our beautiful planet is our heaven and our hell. And that it's up to us to decide what kind of world we want to live in. 

Not up to some invisible deity, or some bloodthirsty Godzilla. 

And although I hate the shopping and the greed, and although I know it can be a sad and lonely time for many...



The homeless and those who live alone, and don't have families or friends, and are lonely, or are sick and in hospital. Or can't go home...



Like the thousands of LGBT kids thrown out of their homes by their own parents. 

And although I'm only too aware that so many of the problems on earth are caused by ugly religion. 

I was raised in the Christian tradition, I believe in the earthly message of Jesus the revolutionary, I share the vision of those fighting for a kinder, gentler, more just world. 

So I do love this time of the year. The lights, the food, the warm feelings, the random acts of kindness, because that is how I imagine the world I want to live in would be like all year round. 

The one I know I will never live in, until the bestial Cons who infest this planet are defeated, and the humble inherit the earth... 



For that is the only way to save them, ourselves, and our precious planet.

And then there is the music of this season. 

And all the songs I used to sing when I was a budding juvenile delinquent dressed up as an angel. 

You know, the angel with a black eye, in a choir like this one...



The words never did, and still don't mean much to me. But isn't the sound of gentle humanity glorious?

Imagine what a beautiful world we could build, if more boys were raised to be strong and gentle, not brutish and violent. And women were treated as equals instead of second class citizens. 

A world where racism and religious bigotry are finally buried in the garbage can of history. 

Hunger and war are banished...



Refugees are seen as humans in need, instead of being used to whip up hatred and xenophobia by people like Andrew Scheer, a Christian in name only.

And there really is peace on earth. 

From me and my wonderful companion Sébastien, who makes me believe in his strong but quiet way that we can build that earthly paradise, if we fight for it hard enough. 

The one who keeps me from flying into walls in my burning desire to go after the Cons and the bullies of this world.

And to all my readers who support me so much, who have kept me company for so many years, and who I love so much. 

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël, Happy Holidays everybody !!!!



13 comments:

Steve said...

Happy Festivis, Joyeux Noel.

Jackie Blue said...

Merry Christmas Simon, and Sébastien.

Best wishes for a brighter world and a Republi-Con free 2019.

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas Simon.

- A commenter formally known as MC

Anonymous said...

Never give up the good fight Simon. Good people do eventually come around.
JD

Anonymous said...

Nice post. It’s important for progressives to make it clear what they stand for, and why they seek to defeat the reactionaries of this world.

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas, Simon.

UU

Simon said...

Hi Steve....Thank you and same to you...

Simon said...

Hi Jjackie....Thank you and happy holidays to you. May 2019 be the year the Con menace is finally discredited and defeated, and we can live free from all that chaos and evil. We do deserve better...

Simon said...

Hi MC...thank you and Merry Christmas to you too. I hope everything is good with you, and that 2019 will be your happiest year ever...

Simon said...

Hi JD....Sometimes I wish I could retire from the battlefield our lives have become, but I can't I think it's in my genes. Five hundred years of clan warfare runs in the family and is a hard habit to shake. 😉
And after all the ways the Cons have clouded our lives, I want to make sure this horror story has a happy ending...

Simon said...

Hi anon...I agree, sometimes it's easy to get carried away and attack the Cons without pointing out why we can do better. I'm making that one of my 2019 resolutions. Hopefully the one I will keep...😀

Simon said...

Hi UU...Thank you and same to you. Let's make 2019 a year to remember...

lagatta à montréal said...

Pour le retour de la lumière

ronrons à Séb et Simon de lagatta et Livia (who really is a cat, a small black one, who fortunately is not persecuted for her colour, as so many cats, dogs and humans have been).

http://www.paqc.org/fr/accueil/

Projets autochtones Montréal; shelters and transitional housing (studios) for First Nations, Inuit and Métis people who are homeless or SDF (without a permanent abode) in the huge "southern" city. Most of these people are from the Far North. Half of them are Inuit (greatly overrepresented due to the housing crisis in Nunavik) and most of the others are also from the far North (northern Cree, Innu, etc.)

Indigenous people face discrimination and even violence in "general public" shelters, much as LGBTQ2 people do.

Site in French and English. Hope it is in Indigenous languages soon!