Today’s Affirmation:
“This year I am restoring the true meaning of Christmas to my life.”
(click the affirmation to hear it in mp3)
It’s that time of year again when the hearts of humanity warm in the chill of the northern hemisphere’s December air. Choirs can be heard singing, shoppers can be seen scrambling, and people stop for a moment – hopefully – to consider the interior meaning of their lives.
Why must we cloud the cheer and hijack the joy with an argument over words? I have to say I’ve grown very weary in recent years of this great debate between “Happy Holidays” and “Merry Christmas”.
It’s gotten to where I don’t know what well-wish I can offer without offending someone. I just want to offer others a well-wish, but I have to stop and edit myself and consider who I am talking to before I can formulate the proper verbiage. Sometimes I get it wrong.
On the one side, you have people who feel like their religious beliefs are being disrespected by the use of the “politically correct” Happy Holidays. On the other side, you have people who feel like wishing them Merry Christmas is some how pushing religion on them.
Have we become so thin-skinned and inflexible that we cannot accept a well-wish from another human being without feeling affront or turning it into a philosophical debate?
We live in a world where we offer each other far too few well-wishes throughout the year. I look forward to this time of year when people are giving them out as a matter of course.
I will readily accept and return a “Merry Christmas”, “Happy Holidays”, “Happy Hanukkah”, “Happy Kwanzaa”, or fill-in-the-blank. I’m confident enough in my own beliefs and respectful enough of theirs to see the good intention beyond the words.
There certainly are principles worth standing up for in this world. This debate, however, sows nothing but dissention in a time of the year when we should be coming together. Unfortunately, it has become an annual product of those who make a full-time job of creating cultural divides in our midst.
That other person is offering something intended to be kind. Let’s put down our battle armor and accept the kindness. Let’s grow up! Let’s experience the happiness and the wonder of this season. Let’s give up this silly, silly debate and move on to more important things.
It is, after all, the thought that counts.
Stay inspired!
Ray
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