The Beginning

And so I have done it again: started another blog. Whether or not I make anything of this remains to be seen. I don't have any warranted reason for writing one -- I'm not cooking my way through Julia Child's book or anything like that -- but I would like to keep writing something over winter break, regimentally, and my new ultra-portable netbook makes follow-through on this ever so slightly less doubtful. We shall see.

In any case, today is Christmas, and I think that is as good a day as any to start writing something new -- it is, after all, traditionally a day of birth. Whether or not I am a self-professed agnostic, I have always loved the Christmas story. I think it is incredibly beautiful. I don't think the question of whether it is factually true should interfere with whether it is conceptually true, and I think everyone believes in that, Christian or not.

What I do think is strange about Christmas is how it becomes entirely isolated from the other 364 days of the year, so that there's suddenly a reason to smile and greet the clerk behind the counter at CVS, suddenly a reason to slow down for someone on the road, suddenly a reason to call people you haven't talked to in a year. And then this becomes the issue I have with the idea of organized religions and their blocked-off calendars of designated days, and with the capitalist market and its fiery chasm of Black Friday that just reflect every other day, and with all the people who unthinkingly subscribe to both. I know it is naive to wish away both of these institutions, and I know I am only seeing one side when I look at them. Especially today. But I can't help wondering what it would be like if every day were Christmas, or if no day were Christmas, and whether or not those would be the same situation?