Forgive me My Gentle Readers for I have sinned. It’s been three days since my last confession, that’s two days too long. Staying at home is not a good enough excuse, my body might be sessile, but my mind always wanders. My body wandered today, I had to pick up a prescription. That was sufficient to lead to an idiot story. My pharmacy is on the other side of Mosholu Parkway, unlike most parkways that involves an actual park. I save half the walking distance if I cut across the park instead of saying on the streets. When I was on the other side and back on the streets I saw some people without masks. I immediately realized that I wasn’t wearing a mask! A mask is like an American Express card, I never leave home without it. I considered going back home but decided that was silly. I held my sweatshirt over my face which is as effective as a mask though not as comfortable. I figured when I got to the pharmacy they’d give me a mask. That’s how the subway works. When I entered the store, I went right to the counter and told them what happened and asked for a mask. He told me that they had masks and I could buy one. Of course, in less time than it would take me to buy a mask I could pick up my prescription and leave with my sweatshirt over my face the entire time. That was a no go as the security guard wouldn’t let me in without a mask. I couldn’t argue. I am 100% for that policy. I just think they should give a mask to people without them. The paper surgical masks are cheap. When I took care of my mother I wore them all the time. The store could buy them wholesale. But what was I to do? I turned around and walked home with mouth and nose covered by my sweatshirt whenever I was in 20 feet of someone. Crossing the park that was not much of a problem. I encountered one person. I got home, put on my mask, and went back to the drugstore I was an idiot, but the consequences were mild. I’ll look at the bright side, I got more exercise.
It’s December, why am I having a terrible allergy attack? I swallowed water; a little bit went down the wrong pipe. The coughing triggered sneezing that won’t stop. This is how my allergies affect me. Most of the time the just create a slow post-nasal drip. Every once in a while I explode.
I had therapy yesterday. I felt bad as I had not done things on my to-do list. This is what we primarily work on now that I’m not severely depressed. It is my biggest problem. We also talked about the Mandalorian. I was not allowed to watch yesterday until I crossed one thing off my list. I did. I started on though I didn’t finish Gord’s Gold. Turns out the most difficult part is deciding who to write about. I chose ilyAIMY. Once I started the problem was cutting it down to under 3 minutes. I recorded it late night because that’s when it’s quiet. My therapist is fun so she told me that I can’t miss this week’s Mandalorian as it was an important one. She didn’t spoil it for me, and I won’t spoil it for you. I agree with her, you can’t miss it and you don’t want to wait.
It’s Chanukah, so I should write my annual Chanukah entry. The problem is that I was already inspired to write a Christmas/Atheist entry. I will write about Chanukah before the eighth day is over.
I often point out that we are all members of some minority group. There are so many divisions of humanity that we are all outside of the majority in some of them, in many there is no majority. The minority status that makes me feel the most excluded is being an atheist. According to the Pew Religious Landscape Study only 3.1% of Americans are an atheists and 4.0% agnostic. When you hear about the rise of the religious nones that means not just atheists and agnostics but those that are simply not affiliated with any religious organization. Most of them believe in god. I don’t make a serious distinction between atheists and agnostics. That’s not about belief in god but in how to express unbelief in a theistic culture. If you asked most if they believed in ghosts they’d have no trouble with a simple no. But as most people do believe in god and unbelievers don’t want to sound dogmatic the couch their words in doubt. I’m an atheist that doesn’t believe in ghosts, if strong evidence ever came out for either I’d change my mind. I just don’t think it’s likely enough to feel the need to say it.
American culture assumes that Americans are theists. We think nothing of a secular country putting “In God We Trust” on our money. “Under God” is in the pledge of allegiance. After 9/11 baseball teams started playing God Bless America at baseball games That one bothered me. I would not stand when it was played. The one that bothers me the most is that virtually every national politician will end every speech with “God Bless America.” People don’t do that in normal conversation, but politicians feel compelled to as they know they will be criticized if they don’t. Neither Lincoln nor Jefferson was a Christian, it’s not clear whether either was a theist, but we only know that from private writings. They could say it opening and hope for a political career.
Now for the plot twist. You might think that I object to the universal assumption of celebrating Christmas. Many of my Jewish friends do. Not me, I go Christmas Caroling. I love many classic Christmas movies, It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Story, and Meet John Doe. Not Diehard, Diehard is NOT a Christmas movie. When I was young I objected, though I loved many of the films my entire life I didn’t like that I loved them. I felt I shouldn’t. I was wrong. Christmas is the holiday of appropriation. Northern cultures celebrated the end of days getting shorter and the beginning of them lengthening. There’s Solstice, Sol Invictus, Festivus, and Saturnalia. They all borrowed from each other. Chanukah has nothing to do with it except for the time of the year and association with lights, but people want light in the darkness, so it joined in too. The culture warriors complain of taking the Christ out of Christmas. They ignore the fact that he was shoehorned into the general solstice celebrations. The early Christians didn’t celebrate it. Good Friday was the original most important holiday. The Passion was and is viewed in Christianity as the central moment in history, the arrival of salvation. It took hundreds of years until Christians started ignoring what it says in the gospels and placed Jesus’s birth near the equinox. The holiday has never stopped morphing. It picked up elements, like Christmas Trees from the pagans in Germany. The holiday we celebrate in American is largely an Anglo-American invention owing much to Charles Dickens, Clement Moore, and Coca Cola. It’s no accident that the most popular Christmas song, White Christmas was written by a Jew, Irving Berlin. What Americans celebrate is something I have no problems with, Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all Men (including women and children). It’s a celebration of childhood and joy. We don’t treat it as Jesus’s birthday, which is good as it isn’t, but as Humanity’s. Just as you go out of your way to be nice to people on their birthday people go out of their way to be nice to everybody near Christmas. I’m all in on that. Santa is in no way a Christian symbol. All connections to the Saint from Turkey have been erased. I have no problem as an atheist watching A Miracle on 34th Street or Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer. I also have no problem with Christians going to church. I do have a problem with them thinking that I should too.
So as this is also Festivus I’ll leave you with something I say every year. As Tiny Tim observed, The Flying Spaghetti Monster bless us, every one. That’s how it went until Dickens’ publishers made him change it from A Festivus Carol to a Christmas Carol.
Wise Madness 