Rhino Ramblings

Santa Feeding Denver Zoo’s Rhino

Back in my early days of “liberal enlightenment” (which turned out to emanate from a singular place based on my own background, upbringing and extremely limited life experience-not very liberal or enlightened), I had this grand idea that all the world needed to do in December is make Dec 25 solely a Christian holy day and separately do that winter solstice thing or some holiday – maybe New Years that celebrated the family, friends and good will (and presents and food and ..) that should be enjoyed by all.  Why the secular version could just be on Dec 25 and move the religious overtones, undertones and innertones into the Churches and households for those who connoted a birth (that if real, likely occurred in the spring) to that date.  Hmmm.  Good idea – right. Sort of like Easter was when I was growing up – there was little commercialization or any major secular connectivity at least not on the scale of Christmas.  Instead what has happened is that Easter is rapidly encroaching from a major religious day to a day that everyone MUST acknowledge and celebrate.  And while attempts have been made to provide alternatives by adding other cultural events to the Christmas holiday (Kwanzaa and Hanukkah forced into a partnership of sorts), if one decides to not heartily acknowledge the “Christ”mas in the season and instead greets people with “Happy Holiday” they are branded as waging a war against Christmas ( a very one-sided one, if such a thing was real) or of infringing on others free speech and ability to force their religion on me and you.  Sorry.  We can have youthful misguided dreams of a Christmas that is so inclusive that everyone automatically accepts they MUST acknowledge that those who celebrate it are in the right and those who do not have the religious connection need to fade into the background or better yet just join in.  With age, for me at least, has come a new discernment.  It is a fearful trend to see attempts to impose a singular religious belief, doctrine, thought process in every aspect of every person’s life. In the guise of “I want my freedom (“to say Merry Christmas and force others to say it in return” or much worse, “I do not want my children exposed to the gay agenda and therefore everyone must agree with me and stop any child or adult from being allowed to live their life and belief so we must ban anyone from discussing “gay topics””).  People in several states are being persecuted mentally – people are being seriously hurt psychologically and are not able to receive the support they need and deserve; and physically with unlawful assaults but also there is a clear goal in some states for a legal assault.  We cannot force everyone into a homogeneous solution of heterosexuality or Christianity, including the albeit symbolic but still relevant example of forcing Merry Christmas on everyone so as to not infringe on my belief that everyone should be Christian.  Instead we need to stop trying to find a solution on our terms (just say Merry Christmas or just allow books that might bother me to be banned and burned) and therefore not allowing for different backgrounds, cultures, beliefs, way of lives, etc.    Is it not a better solution to allow the actual solution be found by the actual people and cultures that are affected and not the ones doing the affecting?  And most importantly recognize that for some, the solution might be “no solution is needed because this is not my problem or issue.  You are the one making it an issue” (whether a war on Christmas, or removing support to children suffering through sexual or gender identity questions, or other homophobic actions). Maybe the proper response to “Merry Christmas” for some is not “Happy Holidays” but simply “Have a Good Day.”  All we should seek from others is respect and more importantly what we should expect from ourselves is respect to all others, whatever may be their differences or similarities to us.

With that, I wish everyone a Happy New Year or perhaps I wish everyone that their days are filled with as goodness and happiness and joy in whatever those days may mean or bring.

(Side note – normally I use pictures from my Rhino collection.  The one for this blog is from a YouTube video:  Santa Feeding Denver Zoo’s Rhino  )