Stories

This time of year, you tend to hear the story about how the angel told Mary she was going to have a baby, and she said, "How can that be? I am a virgin," and then there was no room in the inn and she put the baby in the manger.

And kids in school are taught stories like about Betsy Ross and Paul Revere.

With both religious and historical stories like that, they're told in such a way that I know I'm supposed to revere them, but they don't really do that much for me and I don't know how factual they are.

Recently I heard some stories about when my grandmother was younger. These stories reminded me of where I came from and who I have the potential to be. They made me feel better about who I am and gave me a sense of how to better live up to my potential. And I realized, those other stories from religion and history are supposed to be the same way. That's why those stories are so revered. Because for some people, they had that effect.

But I was writing the other day about how traditions may change with time. The stories that inspired people once may not be the stories that are needed today.

You may say "Stories? What about facts? People should know the facts of what happened." I think one of the reasons the stories I cited don't seem interesting is because they don't seem real. Even in the cases where the things presented are factual, they are kind of presented in a vacuum. You don't know about things in the context that to you are important. So even if all the facts that are presented are actually true, the stories themselves don't ring true because they don't tell the whole story, they leave out parts that I would consider important.

There are many things that have happened in the past, and different people are interested in different aspects. Quite often, when one person tells the story of what they did today to a family member, the person telling the story and the person hearing the story think different things are interesting. In particular, it seems men often want to know just the basic outline of what happened, while women want to know who were all the people who were present and who they are related to. Also, men are more likely to want to know about things pertaining to mechanical and electronic gadgets, while women are more likely to find such things completely uninteresting and irrelevant to what's really important.

Christmas and tradition

In folk music, people refer to "the folk process" as how songs change as they are handed down from person to person. I think the same goes for any tradition. People change them to meet the needs of the times and the individuals. Some people cherish traditions and don't think they should be changed. I don't think we should change just for the sake of change, nor stay the same just for the sake of staying the same. If we cherish a tradition, then let's not change it. Some people can do something a new way if they like it better that way, while others can keep doing it the old way if that's what they prefer.

The problem is that people observe traditions communally, and those who participate together may not all agree on which way they prefer. Sometimes some compromise and communication is needed.

Christmas is a big holiday in the US. It was "originally" supposed to be about the birth of Jesus, but it has grown way beyond that. Some people participate in Christmas rituals even if the holiday has no religious significance for them. Some people might think that's silly, to go through the motions of Christmas without believing in the religious meaning. I would say it's not silly. It just shows that the traditions of Christmas have evolved, as all traditions evolve. People find something of value in certain rituals of Christmas, even though the religious aspects may not have meaning for them. And, Christmas was actually adapted from pagan solstice celebrations, so it's not exactly true that the original meaning of the holiday was Christian.

For those who find great Christian significance in their Christmas traditions, that's fine with me. But it's also fine with me that for some people, it's more of a solstice celebration, a holiday about bringing warmth and light to a time of darkness. The materialistic version of Christmas is not as fine with me, not because I think it's wrong that people have taken the Christianity out of Christmas, but because I don't think our society's excessive materialism is healthy for humanity or the earth.