I hadn’t even thought about writing about today and tomorrow until this morning, while I was running. I was looking up at all the trees I passed, and thought about a passage I’d read that talked about Arbor Day yesterday, and only then thought about trees and Xmas.
What I wrote in my head initially focused more on the trees, but this is what I’ve ended up with:
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Whoever came up with “Xmas” made the term a hell of a lot closer to what it represents.
Cross out the “Christ”, because that part is bullshit.
My brother, Ryan, has read the Bible multiple times, and there is no mention anywhere of Jesus being born on December 25th. Everything about this “special” day is manufactured, for a purpose.
Xmas used to be my favourite time of year, back when I never thought about it — which was as recent as around October or November of this year.
I celebrated Xmas last year. I sang Xmas carols (my favourite thing about Xmas, and one of my favourite activities, period) downtown in a big group. I used to do it every year with a group of high school friends since Grade 11 or 12, when we started it for IB CAS hours. That was a lot more fun: we’d meet an hour before to go over carols from a song list, and then set out around my friend’s rich elementary school neighbourhood to collect cans and money for the food drive, and CAS hours for ourselves. I ate Xmas Eve dinner with my extended family, was the only “big person” who joined in the games for prizes (where I won an iTunes gift card), and was the only one in my family who waited until midnight (Xmas Day) to open my presents.
I’m not celebrating Xmas this year. If I go to an Xmas event, I attend it as a regular old event. I don’t attach extra meaning to it. I attended an Xmas party at the start of the month, and there, read a piece on why I’m not celebrating. Members of the audience told me they appreciated what I’d shared.
My first reason follows my brother’s philosophy that we shouldn’t be creating special days at all. I skipped out on celebrating Halloween for this reason, and Remembrance Day for this and other reasons. A member of my writing group yesterday stated that Xmas was the one day of the year his family could agree to be civil with one another. I told him I don’t really get along with my family either, but I’ve been working on this pretty much every day now, and it’s getting smoother. I see becoming a family again as something I want to attain for real — I don’t want some fake performance for one day, where everyone pretends like they like each other, and goes back to ignoring and staying out of each other’s way for the rest of the year.
Three days ago, during a run, as I was passing Oakridge Mall on 41st, I heard a father shush his son, “Don’t be like that. It’s Xmas.” Children should learn right from wrong and live it every day. Xmas shouldn’t be used as a reason to behave or get others to. That should be on the front of everyone’s minds every day, and manifest itself in everyday actions.
I should not have to reserve the joy I feel while Xmas carolling to one time in the year. I should be able to get together with friends and sing in public without feeling weird about it.
We should not need a holiday to make us feel okay to do the things we love. We should not need Xmas to open our hearts and be kind to others and share what we have with them. That’s the kind of stuff we should be doing and feeling and living every day.
My brother’s posts, videos, and everything he does is made to benefit other people, and with him as my role model, I am working on becoming selfless myself. Everything I am doing to find myself is so that I can better know my life purpose to live it out — to find out exactly how my being here benefits the universe and everything in it.
Being kind to others is nice, but once a year is not enough. We rely on Xmas to remind us, and do it because that’s what’s “trending” this time of year.
A few days after tomorrow, you’ll move on to New Year’s resolutions — thinking up what will sound good and relatable to others, so you can all quit and fail together, and show fake sympathy to one another, before whining and bitching and worrying about what to buy for Valentine’s Day (because you have to give something worthy of posting a picture of to show his or her friends how deep your love is), or crying about being alone while throwing back beer after beer, alone, or at some anti-Valentine’s Day shindig.
I explored Central Library for the first time in months yesterday, and ended up skimming a book on Chinese National Holidays. Xmas wasn’t on the list, but Arbor Day was. Every year, every citizen from age 11 to 60 is required to plant trees. Tree planting is a law in China.
In North America, Xmas is the tree killing holiday. For the sake of tradition, we chop down so many trees we could be planting somewhere. A week ago, while I was running, I passed by several houses with decorated trees on their front yard. The trees were still living. If we must decorate trees at all, why can’t we decorate ones that are allowed to live their life purpose? And somewhere where as many people as possible can enjoy them? Trees were not put on earth to decorate your house for one season.
I used to think of Xmas as the most loving, giving time of year. Thanks to my brother, I see it for what it is: a distraction, to distract us from our own selfishness — a chance to act like giving and loving people one time of year, so we can tell ourselves we are when we go back to being selfish and self-centred for the rest of the year.
The real symbol of Xmas is not Jesus Christ, but Santa Clause. As Ryan pointed out, “Santa,” as we know him now, was invented by Coke, to sell us shit. The real St. Nicholas was not all about consumerism and materialism.
The only culture we have now is consumer culture.
There is no Christ in Xmas, and I will not carry the Xmas spirit in my heart today, tomorrow, or any day of the year.
Xmas is fake, and I don’t associate with illusions.
In high school, illusions were my favourite thing — so much so that I based my IB Art Exhibit on the theme.
Thanks to my brother, I see illusions as tricks. Heck, I even saw it back then: I made a spoof “Canadian Beaver” brand and made a Canadian Beaver t-shirt and condoms as part of my exhibit, because, obviously, a cool logo makes anything worth buying.
Stop buying into illusions and turning yourself into an illusion in the process.
We see through you, and the truth looks better on you.
All special days are manufactured.
You were born from nature.
Stop letting society turn you into a product.
You were born a person, with free will.
Use it, before you lose it forever.
tigrrface 