Touching Letters Reminding Friends and Family the True Meaning of Christmas

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Cortland Pfeffer & Irwin Ozborne, Contributors
Waking Times

Christmas has become symbolic of all that is wrong with our lodge. Much like the Grinch, whose heart was three sizes too small; our hearts have diminished in size due to the culture of fearfulness, conformity, and consumerism in which we reside. Every bit a result, we have lost sight of the true meaning of Christmas, and celebrate information technology in ways that are in direct opposition to its original intent.

This yr, on Black Friday, I was reminded almost the true meaning of Christmas. I choose not to celebrate Thanksgiving, simply rather accolade the Twenty-four hour period of Mourning for our Native American brothers and sisters. I surrounded myself in nature and spent time at a motel in minor-town Western Wisconsin. The sights and sounds were serene. It was a truthful "silent" and "holy" nighttime with no one effectually, yet I was far from being alone as I was immersed in the thriving and picturesque landscape provided by mother earth. And information technology was there, at the local gas station, that I re-discovered what the meaning of Christmas is really about.

Black Friday has get as much a part of the holiday flavour in the U.s.a. as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Families anxiously await the moment the retail stores open for those boggling deals, and quickly carelessness their feelings of gratitude and "thank you" by indulging in competition and materialism, literally rioting, fighting with strangers for bargains as though we were fighting for our survival. Any sense of gratitude we may have tapped into are quickly banished, and consumerism takes hold once again.

I find it ironic that we published an article almost the foundations of Thanksgiving concluding calendar month —Jubilant Genocide: The Existent Story of Thanksgiving — and were slammed by many readers for "ruining Thanksgiving". We were told that it'due south not a celebration of the dispossession of the American Indians, but that "the meaning has inverse and it is nearly beingness thankful and having gratitude." But, while this sounds good in theory, information technology is not adept. And how could it exist? As a nation, nosotros have non collectively acknowledged our nation's encarmine past, much less healed the trauma it inflicted. Instead, nosotros gloat all that we have but ignore the genocide it took to get it. And and so, the day before Thanksgiving is the 2d biggest drunken night of the year in America – backside only New Year's Eve. We have a meal together and requite thanks, but cannot even last a full 24 hours of gratitude before reverting to blazon, as Black Friday deals now commencement at 7:00 p.grand. or earlier on Thursday, the "Day of Thanksgiving."

It's hard for me to purchase into the concept of a day of gratitude when it starts with a hangover and, before it fifty-fifty ends, nosotros ditch our families to wrestle with over others for materialistic ends. Information technology leads to fights, people being trampled, arrests, and fifty-fifty a few deaths, all in an endeavor to purchase "things" to provide for our families for Christmas.

This is what Christmas has go; a season of shopping, not the flavour of giving. It is virtually money, consumerism, and materialism.

The Flavour of Giving

The U.s.a. retail industry generated over three trillion dollars during the holidays in 2013, with the average person spending about $750 on the holiday. Additionally, 33 million evergreen conifers are purchased each twelvemonth, at around $35 each, for a market of $i.xvi billion in Christmas tree sales.

It is estimated by a United nations globe hunger project that it would cost approximately $30 billion per yr to end earth hunger. Think about that. It would accept only $30 billion per year to end globe hunger, and even so, through the season of giving, Americans will spend $465 billion on our own textile gratification, most of which is disposable and disposable. This is non suggesting to abolish Christmas altogether, merely if every U.S. household reduced their Christmas budget past only thirty-pct and contributed that money to impoverished communities, we would meet the forecast amount to end globe hunger.

Wouldn't that make a amend gift? Wouldn't that make for a better Christmas story, if all the resources in the world were utilized to making a better life for everyone rather than benefiting the few? Isn't that what Christmas is about?

In fact, this is how the original story of Santa Claus arose. St. Nicholas was a monk born in the tertiary century. He lived near modern-day Turkey and was admired for his kindness, compassion and generosity. Legends suggest that St. Nicholas gave away all of his wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. Over the years, we have created a mythical creature to symbolize this monk — Santa Claus. Simply, instead of going effectually and donating his wealth to the poor, our mod-day Santa Claus runs a foreign sweatshop that works around the clock to evangelize material items to the earth'due south richest nations.

Living in a Cloth Globe

As a kid, I call back this holiday used to be about sharing love, giving, and caring for one another. I have seen this idea evaporate as the years accept passed, and I refuse to further participate in this distortion. And then, this Black Friday, while millions were out searching for bargains, I found my own bargain – peace and tranquility, for costless.

I observe the word "bargain" quite ironic when talking about retail prices. One must realize that these actually are non the keen deals that are advertised; the standard retail markup is astronomical, and much of the goods sold on Black Friday are produced and priced specifically for these "sales". Many Usa corporations employ workers in sweatshops in countries like Bangladesh, India, China, Haiti, etc., paying far below minimum wages to people working in deplorable working weather condition – typically xiv-sixteen hours per solar day for seven days per week. It costs pennies to brand these products, which concenter massive markups that provide enormous profits for these corporations and their CEOs.

Hither are the pinnacle ten annual salaries paid to the CEOs of retail corporations in the U.s. (as of 2013):

1. Michael Jeffries, Abercrombie and Fitch: $48,069,473
2. Gregg Steinhafel, Target: $nineteen,707,107
3. Leslie Wexner, Express Brands: $19,230,484
4. Michael Duke, Walmart Stores: $18,131,738
5. Paul Marciano, Approximate: $14,399,134
6. Terry Lundgren, Macy'south: $thirteen,840,531
7. Michael Balmuth, Ross Stores: $12,478,239
8. Gregory Wasson, Walgreens: $12,041,058
9. David Dillon, Kroger: $12,024,543
10. Steven Fishman, Big Lots: $11,924,662

The total? Over $180 meg paid to just 10 retail executives.

Don't kid yourself into thinking retailers are taking a loss on Blackness Friday sales — it is their most profitable twenty-four hours of the year.

Black Fri insanity.

The Symbolism of Modern Christmas

Christmas is not a consummate lie, we but demand to sympathise that it has to practise with symbolism. Santa Claus no longer has anything to practice with St. Nicholas or helping the sick and needy. Santa Claus at present represents the fat and jolly CEOs distributing merchandise around the earth. The elves symbolize submissive sweatshop workers that get paid side by side to goose egg, to provide your annual haul of material possessions. (Perhaps the reason they are so modest in stature is considering they represent the 10 year olds working 16 hours per day to provide wealth for their respective Santa Claus.)

So, nosotros tell children Santa delivers but to the "good" girls and boys, creating further separation. Once again, it is symbolic — in actuality, only those children who accept money and wealth receive gifts. How do you explain to a child in poverty that he did non go gift this twelvemonth? By this mythical logic, poor children learn that they are "bad" children considering Santa did not bring him gifts.

This tale of Christmas we share is a stark contrast to the true story of St. Nicholas. The real St. Nicholas was a kind, charitable bishop who made sacrifices to help those in need. Today, Christmas is a celebration that revolves around fulfilling greed, non need, at the expense of the poor.

The problem of sweatshop labor sporadically pops up in the news, but it has never gone away; nosotros just selectively decide when we want to pay attention. It was all over the news in the 1990s with Nike and Gap plant to accept 10-xiii year old kids working as slave in their sweatshops, earning those companies record profits. Every few years, there is a story on the slave labor that produces the clothes we clothing. And then the corporation tells us they have looked into things and have fabricated changes. Nevertheless, only a few years ago a manufacturing plant collapsed in Bangladesh killing thousands of people and nosotros come to discover that Walmart, Gap, Target, etc. were all having wearable made at these factories. If that had happened in the West, what kind of furor would have followed? But the public outrage over the torturous atmospheric condition information technology takes to brand our consumer goods is quickly forgotten in one case nosotros see the "cracking deals" on Black Friday and begin preparing for some other Christmas consumer-fest. We forget what is existent and important, and revert instead to societal patterns, consuming faster than any nation on earth, just considering "Christmas time is here once more."

How did we become here? Through mass marketing schemes and the manipulation of human nature. Nosotros are collectively a group of people watching television, listening to the radio or surfing the internet, and the marketers just pay money for air time — time in our minds — to tell people (specially children) what they "demand". In true marketing fashion, the message they convey is: You're not okay, only one time y'all take these items, then you lot will be okay. It is based on fear, simultaneously creating a sense of lack in consumers and providing a style to temporarily 'fill' it.

A quote from Marilyn Manson says information technology all:

[T]he media wants to have it and spin it, and plow it into fear, because and so you're watching television, you're watching the news, you're being pumped full of fear, there'southward floods, in that location's AIDS, there's murder, cut to commercial, "purchase the Acura", "purchase the Colgate", if y'all take bad jiff they're non going to talk to yous, if you have pimples, the girl's not going to f**k you… It's only this entrada of fear, and consumption, and that's what I think it'southward all based on, the whole idea of 'keep anybody afraid, and they'll consume'.

The Christian Connection

The real genius-work behind this big façade is the connection betwixt Christmas and Christianity. This too, stems from fear. Nosotros remind our children all yr that if you are goodthen you will spend eternity in the clouds with a God, a nice quondam man who knows all, sees all and judges all… Or, if yous are bad, yous will burn in a pit of fire with a horrid human with horns. This patriarchal symbolism is and then extended at Christmas time, when children are told that if they are good, a magical man from the North Pole who, just like God already knows if y'all've been "naughty or nice", will evangelize presents to them, rewarding their conformity to increasingly out-of-touch on religious standards.

We instill this relationship between God, kindness and consumption into our children's minds when they are impressionable — at a time in their development in which they believe it is true —with lasting impacts on their perception of the world.

Then, we plop our kids on Santa's lap to place an order, list out all of the things they want, and then send them to school where they learn that those who do not participate in this ritual will not receive presents — and they get the social outcasts each Dec. After all, merely "bad" kids don't receive a visit from Santa Claus! When all is said and washed, unspoken force per unit area to adapt to the model of goodness=gifts is put on children by television and media, by their parents and their guild, and is after reinforced by their peers — a bicycle that now continues from generation to generation in an increasingly materialistic society.

I'm all for bringing joy and wonder to the lives of children, but is this actually the only way nosotros know to practice information technology?

And all this in a then called "Christian nation." Speak to whatever Christian at Christmas time and they volition say,"What? You don't believe in Jesus? You lot don't want to celebrate this man who preached love and acceptance?"

My answer is No.

The bastardized Christian interpretation of "God" and the son "He" sacrificed due to our inherently "sinful" nature, has manipulated generations of humanity — and it is the foundation of this day'southward celebrations. Dear and credence are not what Christmas is virtually today, nor is it the role of organized organized religion in our modern world.

The begetter-figure God is dead. He has to be, in order for us to move forrad. This estimation of God has washed more harm than good. It is a fairy tale that causes fright in children, has caused countless wars to be fought, and has caused many folks to go on secrets in shame rather than live their lives openly, every bit they are (religious intolerance of divorce and homosexuality are prime examples).

As George Carline once eloquently stated:

"Organized religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about information technology, religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man… living in the sky… who watches everything you lot do, every minute of every mean solar day. And the invisible man has a list of ten special things that he does not want yous to exercise. And if y'all do any of these 10 things, he has a special identify full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish where he volition send to alive and endure and fire and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time… but he loves you… He loves you lot and he needs money. He ever needs coin! He is all powerful, all perfect, all knowing, and all wise. Somehow he simply can't handle money! Religions accept in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they e'er demand a little more than."

Many of the patrons inside the church that stand so faithfully behind their doctrines of unconditional love and kindness, are the same ones who walk out the church building and instantly abandon these teachings; the aforementioned people who employ religious scripture as leverage to estimate, condemning others in the name of "the Lord"; the same people who complain almost the poor receiving "handouts" while edifice million dollar churches that don't pay a dime in taxes, while the poor proceed without food or shelter. Several religious pastors have proven this hypocrisy amid their ain congregations…

In June of 2013, newly appointed pastor of Sango United Methodist Church building in Clarksville, Tennessee, reverend Willie Lyle spent four days disguised as a homeless man living on the streets. He wanted to see what it was similar to truly alive without anything and run into who would offering nutrient and assistance. Then, he transformed dorsum into the role as pastor to address his the congregation:

"Too many of united states want to serve God one hour each week. That doesn't cutting it. That is not God'due south programme."

Similarly, in Nov of 2013, Mormon bishop David Musselman posed as a homeless man outside a Taylorsville, Utah church one Sunday morning. At to the lowest degree five people asked him to leave the church property, some offered money just engaged him only as a charity case (not a fellow human beingness), and many were completely indifferent to his presence. He addressed the congregation, reminding them non to be so quick to gauge one another.

"Many actually went out of their style to purposely ignore me, and they wouldn't even make eye contact," he said, "I'd arroyo them and say, 'Happy Thanksgiving.' Many of them I wouldn't ask for whatsoever food or any kind of money, and their disability to fifty-fifty admit me was very surprising."

Saving Christmas

Spending my Blackness Friday in this small town, it occurred to me how I am forced to conform. Regardless of my behavior, it is impossible for me to neglect Christmas; for if I were to not purchase my children presents then they would feel that I practice not dearest them. I was really conflicted with this scenario every bit I pulled up to the gas station and noticed a woman struggling to carry a few turkeys and other groceries in a pull cart. It allowed me to reflect on some of my religious upbringings from the past. While people literally would put on their "Lord's day Best" earlier walking into church to bow, dirge, hug, and love each other, nosotros were really just putting on an show for each other. We all put on our masks and went through the routines of Christianity, dressed up to the nines and all on our all-time beliefs. Only, once we walk out of the church building, if nosotros were to see a woman such as this, would nosotros help her? Generally not. We would be encouraged non to practise annihilation, because they were probable to scam us out of money, or harm us, and her struggle is her trouble, not mine.

This is how farthermost our club has get. We don't consider the problems (or successes) of others to be our problem, and are agape to actually cease and assistance a stranger, in fact the very give-and-take "stranger" has become loaded with assumptions of "danger" — something we teach our children from the youngest of ages. Equally a result, we are guided by fearfulness rather than dearest, living in separation instead of our natural instinctual reaction — to connect.

This is where spirituality differs from religion. Spirituality is near finding a connexion to the earth both inside and exterior of ourselves, finding a sense of purpose and meaning, and living in harmony with the present moment and our surroundings. Spirituality teaches us that we are all one, interconnected expression of life, and that at our true core, in that location is only unconditional love.

Religion was initially based on human spirituality, but it has steered it toward rules, judgement and separation. It is meant to offer all of the above. In fact, if you lot look into the basic teachings at the foundation of all religions, y'all volition detect this verbal same bulletin. However, every bit these letters have been misinterpreted and misappropriated throughout the years, nosotros accept slowly come to accept the opposite bulletin of religious institutions. They create separation and judgment, of each other and of our own key nature, which is the opposite of its intent – much similar Christmas.

As explained by Don Migeul Ruiz:

In that location is an old story from India well-nigh the God, Brahma, who was alone. Zippo existed but Brahma, and he was completely bored. Brahma decided to play a game, simply there was no ane to play the game with. And then he created a cute goddess, Maya, just for the purpose of having fun. Once Maya existed and Brahma told her the purpose of her beingness, she said, "Okay, let's play the nearly wonderful game, simply y'all do what I tell you to practise." Brahma agreed and following Maya's instructions, he created the whole universe, the sun and the stars, the moon and the planets. He created life on earth: the animals, the oceans, the atmosphere, everything.

Maya said, "How cute is this globe of illusion you created. Now I want yous to create an animal that is so intelligent and aware that it can appreciate your own creation." Finally Brahma created humans, and after he finished the creation, he asked Maya when the game was going to showtime.

"We will kickoff correct now," she said. She took Brahma and cut him into thousands of teeny, tiny pieces. She put a piece inside every human and said, "Now the game begins! I am going to brand you forget what you are, and you are going to try and detect yourself!" Maya created the Dream and still, fifty-fifty today, Brahma is trying to retrieve who he is. When you awake from the Dream, you become Brahma again and reclaim your divinity. Y'all now know the trick of Maya and can share the truth with others who are going to wake upwards too.

This story explains how we are to find ourselves, and find God, in every person we encounter. We don't exercise this buy purchasing items at a store, or showing our goodwill for a few designated days of the yr, simply by helping those in need and showing unconditional love to each soul we encounter, every day of the year. Especially those who need our love — not our judgment — the nigh.

Equally all these thoughts were going through my mind, my friend came out of the store and started speaking with the elderly woman. Equally they connected to chat, I got out of the machine to see what was going on. As I approached them, I noticed the woman'due south bike on her pull cart was missing. "We are giving her a ride dwelling," my friend told me without asking. She never hesitated, she saw an opportunity and did the correct affair without thinking or judging. We packed her bags into the auto and drove her about another mile to her house. It was a very cold twenty-four hour period and her bags were clumsily heavy. There is no way she would have been able to brand it that far on her own. Many people saw her, just no one did anything — all because of fear and the sense of separation information technology creates.

I was overcome with emotion, and was told past my friend not to talk about it. She said "that is but what we should practise, and then I do information technology." I thought that is so true and so simple. We should do what we should practice. Still, no one seems to exercise this — and I am not excluding myself! It is a social conditioning I am working to deconstruct even to this day. Just it reminded me of the divergence between existence guided by fear, non love. As John Lennon said:

"At that place are ii basic motivating forces: fear and dear. When we are afraid, we pull dorsum from life. When nosotros are in love, we open up to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and credence. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot dear ourselves, nosotros cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open up-hearted vision of people who embrace life."

This is the real meaning of life. This is the real meaning of Christmas. To assistance, to give, to be with others and to beloved unconditionally. It doesn't have to be some big deed.

"People who move mountains begin by carrying abroad small stones."

Christmas — and life — is about helping the lady struggling with her groceries. It is about loving each other on a daily basis. It is about calling your parents, family, and friends and just being in that location for anyone and everyone. If we treated everyone like they were a slice of God, not only in that location to be judged by God, and then possibly and then we would behave differently.

It doesn't matter what we call our God, it is however. It is similar to the story of ix blind men that were all reaching out and touching an elephant. Each of the men were touching a different part of the elephant and describing what they felt. I is touching the elephant's leg and says "it is a tree"; another is touching its tail and says "it is a rope"; another is touching its trunk and says "it is a ophidian"; another it touching a tusk and says "It is a spear"; some other is touching its body and says "information technology is a wall". However, they are all touching the same elephant. Imagine if they all fought and killed each other over this argument. How ridiculous that would exist? They are all blind, and they are all correct. They are but fighting over their perspective — the aforementioned mode humanity fights wars over who is right about faith. Is it possible we are all right? And we are all wrong? The foundational stories and principles of religions can all be boiled down to a mutual essence that reveals their common origins. And although people frequently get caught up with the literal differences, their primal tenets are proof that – despite varying 'faiths' – nosotros are more alike than we are different.

And yet, we are told we demand "this" God or "that" God in our lives to survive. In reality, the contrary is true. For it is these perceptions of God, and our attempts to define God, that are leading us to kill each other, to undervalue our divinity and that of others, to destroy the world that supports us for short-term comforts, and to celebrate the holidays with a festival of gross over-consumption. In order to survive, we need to remove the mask of God and remove the mask of Christmas, and return to its natural foundation. Equally writer Jack Adam Weber succinctly described:

Christmas marks the return of the sunday subsequently the winter solstice — the resurrection of calorie-free and the perseverance of unconditional love (symbolized past birth of Jesus) which nature manifests each yr in the new life and returning warmth of springtime, from the desolate depths of winter.

In order to save Christmas, allow the states celebrate the unconditional love of the wheel of life itself, which renews itself at this fourth dimension each year.

How the Grinch Saved Christmas

While the children'due south story claims the Grinch stole Christmas, information technology is clear he did the opposite. He saw the true meaning of Christmas and put an terminate to the charade. While his means were extreme, by stealing all the presents he learned that the existent pregnant of Christmas had nothing to practise with exchanging gifts, simply exchanging love.

In this story, the Grinch was not the bad guy, he was a goad. He was a revolutionary only was misguided with fright, which led to his extreme actions. But the mindset he confronted was actually the problem. One time all the gifts were gone, the masks were removed, the focus on consumption and acquisition shifted, everyone lived together in harmony.

In the real world, Wall Street, organized religions, media, corporations, and the governments that serve them, have "stolen" Christmas by hijacking the holiday and irresolute its significant. Originally a celebration of St. Nicholas who gave upwardly all material wealth to help those in demand, the title was co-opted and its significant slowly turned into a festival of greed, consumerism and patriarchal judgement. Today, only the name remains.

While the story of the Grinch is fictional, its lesson is real. In society to heal, and brand Christmas a sustainable part of our culture, we must alter the style we celebrate information technology. Let'south each of us be that Grinch, and accept consumerism out of the Christmas mythology. Let's steal back this holiday and remember its true meaning — a commemoration of life.

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