Chamblee54

The following story is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Today is the first sunday of the new year. Yesterday saw the sacrilege of NFL playoffs on pay tv. Today, the wild card game is on the idiot box where it belongs. The Falcons had a losing season, and are not in the post season. The story was borrowed from a blog that is no longer published.
PG found a story about the Christmas season at another blog a few minutes ago. It is a feel good tale, even if you don’t completely agree with it. The story is about the “true meaning” of Christmas. Large Tony says that Christmas is about being good. Is good something you believe, or something that you do? Maybe living in a good world means to believe, and to practice.
Some atheists put up a sign, encouraging people to “be good for goodness sake”. While this is a *good idea*, it is also a line from a Christmas carol. It rhymes with “he knows when you’re awake”. Maybe we should just leave it as a silly rhyme in a song, and not make a rule for living out of it.
As we said, PG does not totally agree with this story. Or maybe he wants to argue about the words, but agrees with the spirit behind the words. Sometime the spirit is what is important.
PG is a practice kind of guy. Belief is all well and good, but what is do is what is important. A gram of practice is worth a pound of belief. Part of practice is to shut up, and let someone else tell his story.
I just said goodnight to Granny and turned off the lights in her room. After getting her settled in, I sat next to her on top of the covers. We propped ourselves against the headboard and watched TV.
She got tired but wanted to hear the story of the nativity before she fell asleep. As you all know, I’m not the most religious person in the world, but I’d have to be a downright heathen to refuse to do that. So, I grabbed Granny’s Bible off the night table and read from the second chapter of the Luke. No room at the inn. Shepherds and their flocks and all. But no Wise Men. No kings.
At first I thought maybe I was reading from one of those contemporary editions. But when I looked at spine, it said “King James.” I asked Granny,and she told me, “That’s Matthew.”
Then she told me she prefers Luke, which is why I guess that’s what she asked me to read. I asked her why she preferred Luke since it was essentially the same story. “Luke is more for regular folk. Matthew is too…too…” She searched for the right word, then finally finished her thought with, “too Republican.” We both chuckled about that and I made a mental note to tell the Attorney, who has been known to have Republican tendencies.
Apparently there are differences in the facts of the Christmas story, depending on who told it. Luke talks about the manger and shepherds. Matthew talks about the kings. The shepherds heard from an angel. The Wise Men followed a star. Isn’t it ironic that the Gospels are not necessarily the gospel?
So, I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that even now, 2000 or so years later, that Christmas is a different thing to different people. But whether your Christmas includes shepherds…or not. Kings…or not…Jesus, Santa, Angels, Rudolph, presents, trees, or stars…or not, we’re all celebrating the same thing. The easy answer is “the birth of Christ.” But the bigger answer is “goodness.”
You may not believe a baby was born in a manger to a virgin. Or, if you do, you may not believe that babe is the Messiah. But, if you celebrate Christmas at all, surely you can believe in the goodness that the story represents. And, if you don’t celebrate, surely you can believe in goodness nonetheless.
It’s all mankind truly has to give. Happy Holidays, dear friends and readers.