Xmas = Christmas, with no difference in meaning (no, seriously!)

Is writing Xmas offensive to you?  It is to some!  It shouldn't be...  Xmas isn't taking the "Christ" out of Christmas, but is a Greek writing for Christ that literally means Christ (or Χριστός) and doesn't lose one jot or title of the meaning.  In fact, the X in Xmas is actually as old as Christianity itself.

The Greek word for Christ is "chi"just as the third letter of the Greek alphabet is "chi."  So, Xmas is a capitalized writing of Christmas!  Even written in the 1948 Vogue's Book of Etiquette where it warns that "'Xmas' should never be used" in greeting cards (Fenwick, Millicent, Vogue's Book of Etiquette: A Complete Guide to Traditional Forms and Modern Usage, Simon and Schuster, 1948, p 611, retrieved via Google Books, December 27, 2008; full quote seen on Google Books search page).  But, for those of us who are offended by the use of Xmas may very well just be completely unfamiliar with the long history of Christians using an X in the place of 'Christ' (Wikipedia, "Xmas").

I understand where the feelings of having your God slighted or eliminated comes from and feels like, but, a little understanding and charity needs to be applied here.  Even if it's written by a person simply to abbreviation, we can not cast the first stone.

JPS

Hanging onto that pain, suffering, or offense?

It seems to me that when we are hurt or afraid (fearful) or just hanging onto that feeling of sorrow or pain, we do ourselves a disservice and simultaneously, and necessarily are blaming someone else for that pain or sorrow or hurt or fear...

Why?  Why would we want to do that?

In the words of Bob Newhart, "Stop it!"

Also, in the words of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Stop it!"

Why can't you, or I, or we, just stop it?  Why do we feel that we have no choice but to feel hurt (which implies that someone or something is hurting us), feel afraid (implying that someone or something is frightening us), or are sorrowful (implying that something or someone is making us feel sad or low or depressed).  Why can't we just stop feeling that way?  At other times in our life we are burden-free and happy, even joyful; so why can't we always feel that way?  Why is it so easy to plunge our psyche, our feelings, our self-worth, and our whole person into this mess-of-a-way-to-feel?  Why would we choose to be in this funk?

Why is it so hard?  The answer to this last question is: We are gaining or getting something that outweighs the pain/sorrow/hurt/fear.

Huh?  We want to keep hurting, want to keep feeling sorrow, or want to keep feeling fear?  That just doesn't make sense...

It does, however, explain why anyone would choose to continue feeling this way.

What could possibly outweigh the pain or sorrow that we feel?  Maybe feeing the pride of being correct when another (or others) is (are) wrong.  Maybe feeling the pride of superiority ("well, at least I don't do that" or "at least I am not that way").  We want to feel that pride more than we don't want to feel hurt?   Yes, every time we betray ourselves and choose to act in a way that we know we shouldn't.

Betray ourselves?

In actuality, that feeling of pride or the numbness that blankets the pain is the same thing--a sort of slow poison that eats at us until we become the poison itself.

So, what does "betraying ourselves" or "self-betrayal" mean?

I think it means that you are acting fundamentally in way that contradicts or goes against what you know deep in your heart; deep in your mind; deep in your soul to be wrong.

It's more than just telling a lie or an untruth.  So, can you give me an example?

When you see a situation and you have that initial impulse to make a choice--that choice will be honest and correct 9 times out of 10--but choosing to do anything else (no matter what reasons or evidence you have to choose differently) is self-betrayal.

For example, you awake to hear your new baby stirring; your initial impulse is to get-up and see what's wrong or sing the baby back to sleep.  To get right-up and do just that, is to live honestly--to be honest with yourself.  Whereas, to stay in bed and wait to hear your spouse wake-up and get take care of the baby's needs is, you guessed it, self-betrayal (Bonds that Make Us Free, Warner, C. Terry).

Just stop it.  Get yourself up and out of bed to take care of your baby.  Stop conjuring-up excuses about why you shouldn't, why somehow you deserve to not get-up, or why someone else should get-up and take care of the baby (after all, it's their turn, right?).  No.  Stop it.  Stop it and get out of bed!  This, of course, is all metaphorical talk about just doing what's right!  Don't deceive yourself and act contrary to those initial feelings of doing what's right.  Just get out of bed and take care of the baby yourself and try to save your poor spouse the trouble of waking-up when you're already up yourself!

As long as you hang onto that offense or supposed-offense that you need so badly to help you to feel justified in feeling the way that you do towards someone, just let go of that sickness and feel good about yourself again.  You are a great person and are of infinite worth.  Stop conjuring-up feelings and thoughts about yourself that make you greater than you are and at the same time stop conjuring-up feelings of worthlessness or pain.  Just stop it!

...

I'll write more about this in later posts, just as I've already written about this in the past.

JPS

Movies? Escapism?

With the ever-increasing numbers of movies being produced, viewed, purchased, and seen in theaters, I ask myself, "Why?"  Why are there more and more movies "consumed" by the public?  Is it because they just keep getting better and better?  Graphically and cinematographically speaking, maybe...

It's not because there just aren't any new ideas out there and we must turn to the next set of cinematographic muses to inspire us; or is it?  Are we that pathetic?

I believe that movies have become a new drug, or better put, movies allow anyone watching to live in a different world, a different relationship, with different cars, homes, toys, and jobs than we have right-now in the present world--the real world!

Is that bad?

I guess it's better than self-medicating...  Or is it just another form of self-mecation?

Remember the "feelies" from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World?  Or the place where I originally heard "The New Drug," which was talking about pornography.  It's all the same thing, though, if you think about it.

The difference, though, would be my wife and I don't sit down to watch a movie to get high and there is not the same repercussions, in coming down off the high.  I can get addicted though, just like the new drug or watching feelies.  My brain could still go through similar changes.

Originally, I was thinking of a soft-drug called leaving reality for two hours for a small vacation.  Is this bad?  What do I mean by, "bad"?  Is it harmful?  The answer to this question is: No, it is not.  How can I respond so quickly?  Well, is it bad to escape in your head while you read a book?  No.  Is it bad to lose yourself in thought?  No.   It (watching movies) can become harmful, however, if the movies that are watched

I guess I just answered my own question, and it's not the answer that I originally anticipated: movies or the "escapism" that accompanies watching a movie, is not harmful, in and of itself.  Like most other things, though, it can become harmful if taken to an extreme.

JPS