Gentlemen, I am back on the road today, heading toward Mordor to practice my Orcish dialects. I spent Christmas last year alone, which actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be – there is a lot to be said for going to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, and then waking up the next day full of good cheer.
But, it is always better to celebrate with family and friends, and that is what I intend to do this year.
So I am subjecting myself to the, uh, joys of air travel, which are SO spectacular and wonderful… At the end, though, I think it’s worth the trouble.
One of the best things about Christmas is the tradition of gift-giving. There is is a lot to be said for letting your children believe in Santa Claus, as I did throughout my childhood. Eventually, of course, we all outgrow that belief, but the basic ethos of giving and kindness at Christmastime is something we should all carry with us into the rest of our lives.
Far too much of the time, we do not. We think we only need to give and be kind at a particular time of the year. That is not how it works – you don’t get forgiveness for bad behaviour through giving things at one particular time or in one particular place. As the Good Book says – “show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works”.
This is not the time or place to go into the whole sola fide debate (for the record, I agree with the Protestant position on the subject), but let us just be clear about one thing – giving is something we should try to do as much as we can, wherever we can.
The original story of Santa Claus is not what most people think it is, by the way. As far as I can tell, the origin of the story comes from St. Nicholas of Myra, and he got a reputation for exceptional kindness through buying gifts for children in his area.
He is ALSO known for being the legendary church CHAD who straight-up JESUS-SLAPPED the Holy Spirit right into the heretic, Arius of Alexandria, whose doctrines teaching against the Divinity of Jesus threatened to tear the early Church apart.
(For those who think this is a trivial debate, go read the article I wrote up on this subject like 18 months ago. It is worth looking into this whole episode – and it is not an exaggeration to say that the fate of Christianity in Europe hinged on the outcome of this particular issue. The same people who deny the Divinity of Jesus, are very often the same ones who tangle themselves into serious knots when dealing with the concept of the Trinity, which we see throughout both the Old and New Testaments.)
That is the actual point of Christmas – too often, we forget the “Christ” part of the holiday, and focus instead on all the trappings. Don’t get me wrong, they are great and fun and wonderful and all – but there is an actual POINT to the holiday that is coming up, and we should remember it.
Anyway, that’s about enough preachifying for the day. I am tired and dealing with a weird time adjustment, so let’s get straight to the point.
This week’s lovely lady is Julia Magrone, age 22 from Milan, Italy. She does… fashionistical things, whatever those are. I really don’t have a clue, since this is not at all my area. But, as we like to say around here, we rather approve of the Eyeties, as a general rule – La Dolce Vita, she is special, no?
Happy Friday, lads. I hope you have a great Christmas. Just to be clear, there will be NO Monday poast on Christmas Day, out of respect and reverence for the day of Our Lord’s Incarnation. All of that browser-killing goodness will follow on Tuesday. I hope to have a podcast up and running on Christmas Day as well, but that really depends on schedules and availability – we’ll see. In the meantime, enjoy your time with your families – and do not take it for granted, because believe me, the day will come when you will not have that any more.
1 Comment
A worthy thot. Merry Christmas you magnificent bastards!
https://youtu.be/MLS6qZt9WLQ?si=_L2Yc-NqRs6RBHxL