NOTHING TRITE AND UNORIGINAL - thus it's MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

  I wish you a Merry and joyful Christmas from the bottom of my heart. I am filled with a profound sadness within my joy as I write  these traditional greetings with which, Once Upon a Time -  Christians, Muslims, Jews, and all those who professed atheism or agnosticism but who believed in the power and love of Jesus said loudly and proudly"MERRY CHRISTMAS."

It's Merry Christmas, which means peace, love and serenity in your heart , soul and spirit. It is NOT Happy Holidays because that implies consumerism : buy till you die,  drink till you stink, and sex till you've hexed yourself. But you're happy right?

The whole original idea of using the word Merry meant only one thing. Lightness and joy in your heart. You could be an unfortunate wretch, a poor disenfranchised individual, homeless and deprived of all basic necessities, you could be a struggling miner, an overworked clerk, a chattel at the mercy of your Lord and Master'; why, you could even be rich and miserable - many billionaires are a sad sight to know and to behold.

External things do not give you Happiness. An ungodly orgasm does not happiness bring. Beaucoup loot does not buy happiness, only material things. It doesn't take away the emptiness, the hunger gnawing at your spirit (if you still have one and haven't lost it in your questionable path to wealth)

Charles Dickens understood it very well. His short story The Christmas Carol is not only about Man's selfishness and inhumanity to Man; more importantly, it shows man's kindness, love and endurance and perhaps sacrifice outshines the bad qualities I have cited above. That's why Ebenezer Scrooge was bitter, frustrated, friendless, and empty of all kindness. Because happiness for him only meant the satisfaction of his acquisitive itch - making lotsa and lotsa lucre.

Yet let us admire the larger than life figure of Tom Cratchitt; saddled with a toxic Boss, and a very selfish, indifferent and cruel one at that, Crachitt looked upon Scrooge as the poor one to be pitied. He could truly look at Scrooge in the eye, after being overworked and grossly underpaid and say with the Aape love Jesus  taught us and say"Merry Christmas Sir." He meant it with all his heart.

I am  close to tears  because one billion people in the world will go hungry and there is nothing that I can do to help them. They should not be hungry, because food is plentiful. The world is not in the middle of an agricultural crisis. Why are they hungry then? The principal reason is that they do not have enough funds to pay for food which is not cheap. Much food is wasted by the rich and the haves. It also serves the interests of a few Banksters to keep people in a perpetual state of hunger. Equate that with slavery or indentured servitude and you have part of your answer.

Pastors and the so called Leaders of the World will all talk their usual Merde and Turd about Peace.

Even as they speak, drones are pulverizing the mountains, hills, and stones that serve as refuge for the terrorized and haunted people of Afghanistan. The country was bombed back to the stone age in 2001, with the flimsiest of reasons.

Pakistan will also be a beneficiary of the drones and bombettes ( cluster bombs) Is there no Leader with any balls to declare " Let's have a Christmas Truce.?"

I fear not. The last Christmas Truce occurred in WW1 and the top brass was definitely against it.

"The bloodletting has to continue."

After all, War is the best business in the world. It dwarves any other criminal activity.

It was a spontaneous outburst from the young soldiers who, massacred, slaughtered, blinded, mutilated, waded knee high in blood, declared "ENOUGH! We are going to love our enemies and remember the teachings of Jesus even if it lasts only one night.

This has not been a pretty year for most of humanity. Happiness is not an inalienable right. You have to merit happiness. That comes from within after years of working at it. Let's return to Tom Cratchitt and his family. They knew what happiness and joy meant. Tiny Tim who would not have outlasted the year without an operation. That was costly and where was the money?

 I admire you,Thomas Jefferson but you are not the Creator or even the Great Architect of the Universe. The latter you would have grasped immediately as the name used by all Masons to describe the Creator. As a high ranking Mason you would have known that all men might be created equal but they are most certainly not equal.There are flaws in some of your sententious statements.  Criminy! Mr. Jefferson: you owned slaves and never freed them.

I don't want any of those who read this essay to think that I am going through a sense of guilt.  I have gone beyond that. I feel compassion for those I cannot help and never will be able to do so. I can do something for my family, if they need me and let me know that they do. I can help an elderly neighbor with her bag of groceries, even if she has a sable coat from head to toe. I can give money to a dozen beggars whose faces are unfamiliar to me. The professionals are known to most of us. One of them, a dwarf, also happens to be a usurer and owns three apartment buildings in our neighborhood. I have never seen these beggars with quivering voices and hopelessness in their eyes before. They are not addicts or drunks. They are unemployed and have shed their pride because maybe there is a child or an elderly relative who is in urgent need of food or medicine. I can do that for Jesus.

So, I end this long note for Christmas 2009, this decade with Serenity, Joy in my heart, profound love for ALL my loved ones, friends, a few enemies(that has been very hard to do) and acquaintances.

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO ET IN TERRA PAX HOMINIS VOLUNTATIS.

GLORYTO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND PEACE TO MEN OF GOODWILL.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!