Yes, it is the day before the day before Christmas.  I spent the day trying to convert me Mudder-in-laws tractor from a front end loader to a snow blower.  Six manuals and as many hours later I succeeded with the accompanying sense of fulfillment that can only be experienced by someone who can truly say “Vini Vidi Vici.”

Somewhere in the distance carols blare from Daffle’s (That’s my Fawder-in-law) computer speakers.

I have a love hate relationship with carols.  Every now and then they succeed in raising my spirit.  Other times they make me think of nothing more than the buying extravaganza that I am conditioned to believe I MUST be a part of.  (Did you know that last year some $26B (that’s $26,000,000,000) worth of gift cards were exchanged?) Sometimes I sing soulful versions of I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.  It’s funny, actually, as I’d be every bit as pleased with a brown Christmas. Keep in mind dead grass needn’t  be removed from the driveway with a tractor that requires a face lift from front end loader to snow blower.

Daffle just told Tash the true origin of Christmas trees.  Turns out it’s a phallic symbol associated with Saturnalia – an ancient Roman festival.  As the story goes Pope Pius III couldn’t stamp out the festival so he decided it would be a good idea to sort of mash Christmas into it.  It’s a sort of high-level case of,  “If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em.” Well sort of.  We’ve been carrying on with the tradition ever since.  Oh well, the tree Tash is working on is quite nice anyways.

Yup, like it or not folks, there are very few people, who know about these things, -if any- who think Jesus was born on or near December 25th.  Some say that Jesus was actually born about 2 B.C in the spring time.  (This would, of course, mean that Jesus was born “Before Christ;” which has more than a few theological implications we shan’t discuss here.  The numbers work well with Him being born year zero, so let’s just role with it.)

Actually, the whole idea of celebrating Jesus’ birth doesn’t come up very often in the Bible.  The three wise guys, some shepherds and likely the little tike’s parents are portrayed as rejoicing, but most other folks didn’t seem to make much of a fuss. Well, there was a major exception.  One of the big wheels of the day ordered all the males under 2 killed to try to eliminate baby Jesus.  I suppose that should be omen enough to anyone that the poor kid was not going to have an average life.

More often than not the Bible DOES talk about celebrating his death. No kidding.

I suppose to be super accurate you would have to say the Bible talks about celebrating His resurrection.  The point is you can’t be resurrected unless you die and thus His death gets celebrated a lot. It’s sort of a two-for-one deal and you can’t have one without the other.

Why celebrate the death and resurrection?  Well, it’s a bit like when your Uncle Marty fought cancer and won.  Or the way you broke your arm last ski season, but you’re ready to tackle the slopes again.   When people overcome adversity we celebrate.  Considering death normally wins you’d have to say His victory was an upset of titanic proportions.  (Even more staggering than the Giants defeating the “un-defeatable” Patriots to win the Super Bowl.)

The other reason it’s worth celebrating is that the Bible seems to imply (READ: state directly) that we can live with the same overcoming power in our lives.  I don’t think that means we’ll never die, but it does mean we can be raised from the dead.  I suppose this means we can walk free of depression, discouragement, despair, loneliness, and when it’s all over we can be raised to life (presumably) in heaven.

If you want to read the Christmas story as told in the Bible you can go here:  http://read.ly/Luke1.27.NIV

For the death and resurrection this is your spot:  http://read.ly/Luke22.1.MSG

Merry Christmas, and don’t let this get you down.  It’s good to celebrate Jesus.

sb

PS.  Some say candy canes are actually “J’s” for Jesus.  This article says it’s bunk, but I’m sure, by now, we have to know that you can’t believe everything we read on the internet.

The movie District 9 came up the other night at the pub. I am amazed to discover that I am still totally fascinated by it. 

It’s one of those movies like The Matrix or Big Fish that was just a really really good idea.

That they delivered such incredible results with a no-name cast, a meager budget (30M compared to matrix: 65M and Big Fish 70M), and it wasn’t filmed in the US just makes my sense of WOW grow.

Ideas in movies are hard to come by.  Explosions, and sex are not.  District 9 delivered a good idea.  My friend told me he watched for 20 minutes wondering when the movie was going to start then he realized it HAD started.  This would be a bit of a slam if he was suggesting it was very dull, or run of the mill…  his point was that IT WAS REALISTIC.  Considering half of the ‘actors’ were aliens, that’s quite a feat!

Now you take a movie like Mission Impossible where apart from the hi tech stuff and Tom’s uncanny ability to never really get hurt  (Don’t get me started on how he was, in fact, the last Samurai.) the movie is supposed to be real. Yet, we leave the theater thinking, what a load of horse **** that is.  It’s so fake. Or, even worse, we come out praising the special effects.

NO.

Movie’s should be really really good stories that are transcendent and (to get all Aristotle on your a$$) cathartic.  We should be taken from the theater to another place and when we get there we should be challenged by the experiences we see and in the process learn about ourselves and become better.

District 9 delivered.  Sure, there was quite a few explosions and a bit of gore, but they added to the story.  Actually, given the (seemingly obvious) parallel with apartheid ridden South Africa I would suggest the scenes were quite tame compared to what actually happened there to real people. READ: not to aliens!

I actually saw the movie (the 2nd time) with my pastor and he came up with a whole Moses take on the movie.  I personally saw more of a Jesus connection.  (I’d explain why, but clearly I don’t want to ruin it for you.)

The other thing District 9 has going for it is that it’s cool.  And cool counts for a lot in my books. (You’re either in the club or out on that one. There will be no explaining of it lest this become a jr. high school girl’s blog.)

I made a little musical tribute to District 9.  It’s two videos down.  The first vid is the trailer to the movie, 2nd is my tribute, and the third is a great imitation of the aliens by some guy I found on Youtube.

I hear District 9 will be out on DVD in time for Christmas so perhaps me fadder-in-law and I will have something to do when we’re not building a house for the dog.

Click here to view the embedded video.

My musical tribute to district 9.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Awesome Prawn (Alien) Impression here:  

Click here to view the embedded video.

Introspection looks in.  It puts you at the center of your focus.  It is a mirror to look at yourself.
Outrospection looks out.  It makes other people and situations the focus of your attention.

Like the intro and outro of a story they both have a place.

Introspection is the doormat to your life story.  It is where the greatest adventures will begin and end. It is where you will learn about yourself.  It is where you will see your strengths and weaknesses.  In the end, though, it is mostly just a good place to wipe your feet.

Outrospection lifts our eyes from the muddy doormat to the bright red door of opportunity.  It sees people’s needs, it sees what could be, it amalgamates the information gained from introspection with what it sees in the world ‘out there.’

Every great story that I can think of features people who have struck an organic relationship between these two elements.  They temper one with the other.

>Gandhi tempered his awareness that he needed to eat with the knowledge that his people were dying.  Because of his strong sense of justice he decided that he would pay the personal price.  For an interesting read on Gandhi check this out: http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/gandhi/english/e_gandhi

>Jesus, though moved with compassion for the multitude also took time to be alone in the hills.

>Tevye, the dairyman and father from Fiddler on the Roof watched in dismay as his children broke with tradition and as a pogrom was affected on his town.  He was aware of how his children felt and sacrificed his own convictions for them.  He always took time to talk and walk with his own thoughts and God.

>Bob Dylan was aware of what was going on.  He wrote songs that inspired a nation and a generation.  Songs of immense personal searching and reflection on the happenings of the day.  The crowd wanted him to lead them in their revolution.  He knew he was a voice and not a savior.  He complained of people pursuing him – preferring to live a quiet life. Of all the super sensations of the musical world he is one of the few with no self destroying drug addictions.

The list goes on and on.  I would be surprised if you could think of a story where this dynamic relationship did not exist.