My Christmas dilemna...

It's just sinking in for me, now, that this is the Christmas season...

I think it's because I've been broke for a while, now...and so I haven't been able to think about buying gifts...

I'll get my first paycheck on the 15th, I believe...so I can pay off some bills...and hopefully do something...even something small...for folks for Christmas...maybe used books, again, for folks...I've got a whole bunch of books that we got at the library sale...and I got Brandi and her family books, the year after we broke up, that she didn't want at the time and hasn't claimed when I've offered them to her...so I think I can safely give them away to others, at this point...though the Wichita State hat I bought is hers...so she can claim that when she's ready...

I've been following all of the Christmas controversies in the news...watching Fox News with my uncle on Thanksgiving...and on a largely liberal chatboard I frequent, the EZBoard International Debate forum...

And...my only really important thought on the whole matter...

Do we really have to fight over Christmas?...

How hard is it, really, for us to just love one another and celebrate that love for people who do or even those who don't really embrace the meaning of holidays like Christmas and Hanukah (though High Holy Days are the real celebration in Jewish tradition, I've gathered from many years with a very Jewish family) and Kwanzaa and Solstice and any other holidays around this season?...

I told my friends on this chatboard that fighting about Christmas is like using the birth of your newborn as an excuse to fight with your spouse about what you're going to call him or her...my parents did this...twice...so lost were they in their fighting, generally...

And at some level...aren't you like...it's Christmas...it's not the Alito nomination...

Isn't there any time when we can just put aside the politics and remember why people care about the politics, so much, supposedly...

Because we care about one another...

Christians and the Pagans was the song that made me a Dar Williams fan...if you haven't heard it...this is the season to listen to it, apparently, when you get a chance...

"The Christians and the Pagans sit together at the table...finding faith and common ground the best that they were able...just before the meal was served...hands were held and prayers were said...sending hope for peace on earth...to all their gods and goddesses"...

Brandi was the best person I knew to bring people together around these holidays...she would invite all the political science students at Wichita State she knew to the political science lounge...and we would light the menorah, together, and sing Hanukah songs that I still remember and will likely sing this year, as well, as I celebrate Hanukah along with Christmas...

Forgive my lousy spelling of the English transliteration of the Hebrew...

Baruk-atah-adonai-elohanu-melak-halem-asher-kidishanu-bomitzvotah-vitzivanu-laha-vekner-shel-Hanukah

Wikipedia gives a better one...

Barukh atah Adonai, Elohaynu, melekh ha-olam, asher kid'shanu b'meetzvotav v'tzeevanu l'had'lik ner shel hanukah.

Now I'll have a reference for celebrating Hanukah this year:):)...

Merry Christmas, everyone...Happy Hanukah...Happy Kwanzaa...Happy Solstice...and Happy Holidays...

Love,
Ben