It’s the End of the World as We Know It

Howdy all to a hopefully understandable interpretation of the many different thoughts within my crazy, hectic mind. I first would like to share what will be included in this blog, and to be honest, it could quite literally be anything. It could range from sports to if aliens are real, just your everyday normal topics. In reality though, it will probably be mostly about God, current events and my opinions (yes I have those), and both the good and bad about my life as a whole. I aim to be as transparent as possible about most things, bar any deep dark secrets I may hold. I will not be letting anyone proofread my posts before I post them as I want no one influencing my writings, I want these to be directly from me and my own thoughts and feelings. I also hope this blog serves as a time capsule for myself, see how I change overtime along with how my writing skills (hopefully) improve with age, as at this moment I would consider myself an amateur writer. Last thing, I am not an expert on ANYTHING, please realize everything I am saying are my own thoughts and feelings, feel free to agree or disagree with anything I write, but please do not take my word as law, though I doubt very few of you actually would.

One thing I would like to say before continuing is the inspiration for this blog came from my father, who himself kept a blog which he (in)consistently wrote for ten years. For those who don’t know my father passed in October of this year, which obviously has been a life-changing experience for myself and my whole family. With his passing, I want to do all I can to honor him, so I thought what’s not a better way than my own blog. In fact, the name of my blog is a not so subtle reference to a song by his favorite band R.E.M., I recommend you give them a listen sometime. I probably will refence my father a lot throughout my blog as a whole, so I hope you guys have tissues nearby just in case. But once again, thank you to everyone who has supported me in this time, and thank you dad for loving and raising me as you have, I will miss you always and love you dearly.

Now that the tears are out of the way (for now), I guess I need a topic for the rest of this blog post. Something simpler this time around, as truthfully there was not a lot of planning done on this post, as I write this sentence in fact, I do not have a name for the blog or even the page created. I’ll just figure that out in post I suppose.

I guess let’s talk about Christmas, a holiday that has occurred recently and one of the biggest of the year. Personally, I feel Christmas has lost the spark it once had. I am not sure if that is due to getting older, events in my life, my holly jolly spirit dimming, or if Christmas has become swallowed up by the world around it. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, it is my favorite holiday after all, but year after year it just doesn’t feel the same. I do think it is in part due to myself in fact getting older, I’m not exactly waking up at six anymore to go open presents (you’re lucky to get me out of bed by noon). But I do think a major culprit of this loss of the glimmer of Christmas is due to everything around it. For one, consumerism has always had a strong hold on Christmas, but I would argue it is even worse nowadays than when I was younger. Corporations as a whole have too much control over everything, but that’s a topic for another day. But no really, it has gotten so bad nowadays, even scrolling for a minute on social media you’ll get hit with an ad trying to sell you something for the holidays. And everything is so overpriced as well, you’re really going to sit here and tell me this L.L. Bean jacket is 150 bucks??? I don’t even want to look at my bank account right now, I’m sure my Christmas shopping put quite a dent. It is utterly ridiculous.

Saying all of that though I feel it is important to mention what the true meaning of Christmas is. Christmas is about togetherness, being with friends and family and spending time together. Drinking hot chocolate while watching a Christmas movie, going and looking at tacky lights, singing Christmas carols poorly, baking cookies, just ANYTHING done together makes the Christmas season. While that all is pretty great, it is not the true meaning of Christmas, this is. As Linus says,

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this [shall be] a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

What is Christmas without our savior Jesus? In my mind it is nothing, a hollow shell of itself. Maybe that is why Christmas has felt emptier in years past, maybe I myself am not realizing what the true meaning of Christmas is. It isn’t about the gifts, cookies, decorations, or anything else, it is about the birth of Jesus Christ, the savior of us all.

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.