As we approach the solstice...

This final week before Christmas is too frazzled. It always is. The weekend went by with us rushing to too many places and booking too many events (dinners, playdates, etc.) for two days. Last night I managed to sneak out for twenty minutes to buy a last minute gift for my wife (Jacob Lawrence 2006 calendar) at Idle Times, and picked up a bonus gift for her (Shoshana Felman's Writing and Madness). Look, they weren't exciting: the little things though are the threads that hold the flashy decorations in place.

I celebrate Christmas as a cultural holiday, because I really don't give half of a smashed rat's ass about the religious hokum surrounding this dominant incarnation of the Winter Solstice celebration (oh, and no I don't dress up in pine branches and sit out in a field watching the sun rise and celebrating solstice). I'm rather comfortable thinking of the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day as the "holiday season." When I hear some shitbag talking "Jesus is the reason for the season," it's usually 1 of 3 possibilities:

1. Puritanical obsession with people believing exactly as he/she believes.
2. Hypocritical pronouncement of someone who wouldn't walk 2 steps in Jesus's sandals.
3. Combination of the first two. They're the best. Someone like Bill O'Reilly.

If even a third of the churchgoing types acted on half of what Jesus -- not Paul -- said, we'd have a hell of a lot fewer problems in this world. Of course, Capitalism would collapse, but that's what I call a bonus.