Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Christmas Day 2019



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 don't know why I felt the need to explain that, the reasons have been lost in the mists of time, somewhere in Canada or somewhere in Scotland.

But it still speaks for what I believe in, and it does sum up why I fight every day for a better world. So 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 the ones who 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. 

And 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 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. 

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 !!!!



23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rare footage of Simon making sure the roof was safe for Santa's sleigh: https://youtu.be/HpVhSx0fZwM

Wishing you all the best at Christmas, Simon!

Marmalade said...

Merry Christmas, Simon.......enjoy every moment.....especially the puddings!

Jackie Blue said...

Merry Christmas, Simon. A beautiful message that bears repeating.

And Happy Birthday to your wonderful, compassionate, and very resilient Prime Minister.

All the best in 2020 and may the darkness be defeated by the light.

Anonymous said...

Lots of Cons believe in the same world you profess to fight for, just as there are plenty of Liberals, you included, who are exactly like you think Cons are. You spit on anyone, no matter how they lean politically, who does not sing the praise of Trudeau the Benevolent.

Merry Christmas to you all the same.

Jackie Blue said...

Pbbbbbffft. Bah humbug to the Grinches of the CPC Conservative Plutocrat Cabal, the party of Ebenezer Harper. Ho ho ho and yippie kai yay.

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas, Simon and long may you run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo6K-mhKZRY

JD

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas Simon. I've been reading your blog for years, through good times and bad times. I think you and your regular commenters are great, and look forward to your 2020 adventures.

Anonymous said...

It is not about Trudeau the benevolent, its about addressing the issues that will shape our future. The Liberals, NDP, Greens have platforms to address the issues in different ways, all the current Reformacon party offers is opportunistic divisive blame the other guy (Trudeau) propaganda in order to mask out their oily mercenary retro religious agenda.

RT

Steve said...

Merry Christmas Simon, thanks to the wisdom of the collective we have a white Christmas instead of a black conservative one.

Simon said...

Hi anon....Thank you, and Merry Christmas to you too. And thanks for the video, although I don't have that yob's kind of Scottish accent. My Mum is English and after so many years in Canada I have only a trace of a Scottish accent, except when I'm watching soccer games...😉

Simon said...

Hi Marmalade....Thank you and Merry Christmas to you. The Christam puddings my Mum sent me have five types of booze in them, and I also got brandy butter. But sadly I have to control my blood sugar, so I was only able to eat a very little piece, especially after having three mince pies...😳

Simon said...

Hi Jackie....Thank you and Merry Christmas to you too!! All is well in the Great White North and the forces of light will defeat the Con forces of darkness...

Simon said...

Hi anon....When a party is loaded up with as many racists, misogynists, and homophobes like the Scheer Cons are, they cannot be compared to any of the progressive parties. But I'll leave that for another day, and wish you a Merry Christmas too...

Simon said...

Hi JD....Thank you, I hope you had a Merry Christmas. And thank you for that great Neil Young video. And I will keep going until the Cons are just a bad memory....

Simon said...

Hi anon...Thank you and Merry Christmas to you too. Also thank you for acknowledging the great work of this blog's commenters. I like to think they are better than any of the others at Progressive Bloggers, and if it wasn't for them I might have retired long ago....🏂

lagatta à montréal said...

No snow here now, and utterly balmy temps in Moscow! Weird.

lagatta à montréal said...

Turning in to cuddle with my wee black Livia (small black cat, born in a shed in the lane). Hoping my lower back pain will decrease... Cats (and dogs) who don't walk upright rarely have that problem, not until they are very old. Buon anno à tutti.

Jackie Blue said...

Can't wait to read your take on Home Alone-gate, Simon. Trump blames Trudeau personally for a meaningless commercial edit that happened in 2014, and Brad Trost is first out of the gate to call for a defunding of the CBC. Wonder if this will be a litmus test for the Cons' clown show. Helluva theatrical absurdity we're all living in, eh? He really is a celebrity ding-dang-dong!

Anonymous said...

I'm sure Simon, you and the rest of the Trudeau groupies and other members of the Trudeau cult of personality will be throwing your usual fits because someone was so mean to "Justin".

As much as I cannot wait for the day Trump is out of office, he did end his tweet with "just kidding". But as usual Trudeau's smitten and blinkered yap dogs overlook the complete story.

Jackie Blue said...

Dude, projection much? It was Trump's smitten and blinkered yap dogs, including his idiot failson and the three stooges on Fox & Friends, who started the whole thing in the first place and overlooked the complete story. The Trump cult of personality was throwing their usual fits because they thought "Justin" was so mean to God Emperor. That includes Brad Trost and the rest of the #DefundCBC mob.

I mean, Trump started a trade war because Trudeau is obviously more photogenic than he is, and his wife and daughter (or daughter-wife) kept making goo-goo eyes at him. He sabotaged an international diplomacy conference over a viral video of world leaders laughing at him. People have every reason to brace for disproportionate reactions from such a petty, thin-skinned, irrational narcissist who lashes out over the tiniest perceived slights. People also have the right to rally around a prime minister who has faced nothing but personal attacks on all fronts as he tries to do what's best for his country and the democratic world order. That's not being blinkered. That's just common sense. Which sadly, doesn't seem so common anymore.

Anonymous said...

"But as usual Trudeau's smitten and blinkered yap dogs overlook the complete story."
That's hilarious. Trump tweeting a complete story is as likely as Scheer marching in a pride parade. Trump's tweets are nothing but vomit disguised as text. He appears to jest that he's kidding when he's simply chumming the waters so his Orks can go on a feeding frenzy and they did. Can you not see that my disgruntled little Con? Now please get a life and defend your PM and while you do that I'm going to dust off all of my Justin posters(just kidding).
JD

lagatta à montréal said...

Simon et Sébastien, je vous souhaite un très joyeux temps des fêtes.

Sixth Estate said...

Oh for Christ's sake.

There was a time when one could be ethical, and accepting of reality, and honest, and a Conservative in Canada. That time sadly has passed, and if you were the first three of those, you would accept that fact, even if you were also clinging desperately to the fourth.

There is nothing in the Conservative Party now for any decent or right-thinking person other than a sad echo of a voice calling -- fitting for this season, even for an atheist like me -- "Come out of Babylon, my people, so that you do not participate in her sins and suffer from her plagues."