eric's little black star » Axial tilt is the reason for the season!

eric on Dec 23rd 2008 at 4:29 am Random Life Stuff

Axial tilt is the reason for the season!

I’m not really into Christmas. It’s not because I don’t like giving or receiving gifts from friends. Heck no! I’m already planning next year’s Christmas CD. It’s not because of a crappy childhood – mine was great, especially Christmas. It wasn’t overly done and never too ridiculously tacky. I honestly have no bad memories of Christmas whatsoever.

I don’t really have a problem with the whole Jesus thing. I also don’t have a problem with people who want to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” Both parties are equally guilty of being self-righteous and annoying.

Could be the snow. I spent a good bit of the morning shoveling the driveway with what can only be described as a really good children’s shovel and a garden rake. The rake proved to be pretty useful, I’m glad we had it.

I’m not unhappy that it’s Christmas. I’m not against it or even against people who have “the Christmas spirit” (whatever that is). I don’t really have an opinion of Christmas music (well, musically, I do – the new stuff is crap and nobody plays the old stuff except over at Falalalala.com).

I guess I just don’t get it. Christmas, at the very least, is supposed to be a nice, happy, peaceful time. But mostly it seems to revolve around people being assholes. We drove to a mall three days before Christmas. We were honked at several times. People in Seattle are way too passive-aggressive to honk… except during the Yule Tide season.

It’s crazy. And I think that’s why I’m never all that hyped on Christmas. People turn into miserable, hateful animals all in the name of doing nice things for others.

Maybe if Christmas were about drowning puppies, I’d understand how the celebration would turn people into rabid lemurs. But it’s not. It’s about gift giving and happiness and family.

At least it is if you allow it to be. By entering into that world… the shopping center world… at Christmas, I willing chose to participate in the chaos and pure evil. My bad, dude.

But seriously… why do we do this to ourselves?

Why can’t Christmas just be about this…

7 responses so far

7 Responses to “Axial tilt is the reason for the season!”

Ryan Beggar says:

December 23, 2008 at 12:10 pm

I’ve discovered the secret of Xmas. We haven’t driven! Everyone has been awesome and we love Xmas. wool hop!

eric Reply:
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:19 pm
You definitely have a point there. If I could have no snow and no driving and no shopping, christmas would rock. :)

more wool hopping, please!
Mitchell says:

December 23, 2008 at 12:36 pm

What’s up Eric? I just called page after page, where they told me you don’t own it anymore and that you moved to seattle. Damn/good for you. But I wanted to catch up with you and so I’ll just do it here, I guess.
I’m really glad I met you back when I did. You were doing your thing, probably pushing hard for things that few people around you seemed to care much about, and you kept doing it. I wouldn’t realize it til years later, but distributing the Little Black Star was some of my first organizing experience.
I graduated high school and moved to philly to learn. I didn’t know exactly what I was trying to learn, but now I understand that it was revolutionary organizing. And I’m living it. I’m in touch with a network of people from as far away as Oaxaca. I’ve seen, done and been through so much shit- failed & successful projects, a police raid, been locked up ptoo many times, etc, etc. I’m still learning and I’m always going to be. I’m still going and I’m always going to be bringing it harder than last time.
I see and hear a lot of complaints that in the US, there’s no intergenerational movements, and that’s one thing to blame for there not being mass movements. Whether that’s true or not, you helped raise me up in a quick but strong way, and I want to thank you for it. And I want to thank you by doing the same for a younger crowd.
Take care Eric,
-Mitchell

eric Reply:
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hey Mitchell! (Mitchell’s on the corner!)

Thanks. Quite a lot. I’m not really sure what I did, aside from giving you a fairly awesome name, but thank you. I’m glad some folks got it. Most just laughed at me.

Keep going and organizing and be careful that you don’t burn out. You were a good friend to me. I can’t thank you enough for that. If you ever find yourself in Seattle, you’ve got a place to crash.

-Eric
Calder says:

December 23, 2008 at 3:32 pm

Jesus looks a lot like Emo Philips. Does that mean that Yakoff Smirnoff is one of the apostles?

eric Reply:
December 23rd, 2008 at 3:46 pm
“In YOUR religion, Jesus saves you… in MY religion, we save Jesus!”
Ryan Beggar says:

December 23, 2008 at 8:19 pm

“In MY country, YOU deliver toys to a man in a red suit!”