Here's Hoping For A Festivus For All Of Us [Embrace 'Costanzaism']

The Baltimore Sun ^ | Dec 28, 2003 | Dan Rodricks

[johnny7]

I GUESS IT wouldn't be very Christian of me to start an argument with the driver of the car with the bumper sticker that reads "Christians aren't better, just better off." I spotted this one in a shopping center the other day and, while I'm usually just mildly amused at bumper stickers - "What if the hokeypokey really is what it's all about?" - this one about Christians being better off scraped against some sensitive nerve, probably because it's that time of year when I figure Christians are reflecting, at least for a few minutes, on what it means to be one. The whole idea of Christians thinking they've found the better way to live in this world - and bragging about it in public - didn't strike me as particularly Christian.

[johnny7]

I get it... a religion about 'nothing'!

[LadyDoc]

This is a terrible article. It says nothing, except to bash christians and ridicule Christ.

He even quotes a character from Friends to bash christmas, even though as far as I can remember, most of the characters in Friends were not Christians (or any religion except Me-ism---what I mean is they weren't good Jews or good Hindus or good Buddhists but only worshipped themselves and their egotistical lives.)

[TalBlack]

Christians are reflecting, at least for a few minutes, on what it means to be one.

I don't know, Danny boy, I've met MANY Christians who remember that they are Christian 24/7.


The whole idea of Christians thinking they've found the better way to live in this world - and bragging about it in public - didn't strike me as particularly Christian.

To THAT one, Danny boy, I don't know WHAT to say except that it doesn't make the slightest bit of sense at all. You might try to spend a little time contemplating what it means to be a Christian--or any other religious believer--that is if you can squeeze it in with your excercises in self satifaction and smug superiority.

[mollynme]

[yarddog]

Seinfeld was a very interesting show.

It is one of the few which would sometimes make me really laugh. One day I noticed something about it which I thought was a little unusual. Except for possibly Jerry and Kramer, you really don't like any of them.

They all are basically selfish immoral people. (They may be what New York calls moral but to me they are nearly completely without morals).

The show is about nothing except banality.

[NordP]

Does this article offend me as a Christian?

No, it offends me as a Seinfield watcher.

[CrazyIvan]

The bumper sticker is just a phrase attempting to be clever, and coming off vague and clumsy. Better off than others? Better off than they were before becoming Christians? Who knows. The author seems to have interpreted it far too seriously, just like giving the script of "Friends" any serious credence.

[NordP]

But then again, Jerry Seinfield, Elaine and George's real life counterparts all offend me as a Republican.

[AAABEST]

I get it... a religion about 'nothing'!

Yeah right?

It's a sad fool's paradox. Living in darkness while trying to project wisdom.

[cupcakes]

Well now that I know that bumper sticker annoys a liberal, I will actively seek it out;-)

BTW, which Bible is this guy reading--Jesus did offer a better way. It is eternal life as opposed to eternal death.

[sheik yerbouty]

"We will now start with the airing of grievances..."

[Gritty]

Excuse my heretical interpretations, but I think Jesus' message was pretty simple - you affirm your existence on Earth, your reason for being, with devotion to love, justice and peace.

He's correct here; he is being "heretical".

This guy is totally confused about who Jesus is and why He came. I suppose it was just too much trouble to check the Primary Source (the Bible) to discover the truth before he started blathering away in this horrid article?

Jesus was not about "affirming" anything or anybody. He came to save man from his sin and the eternal consequences of it and reconcile individuals back to Himself. Jesus is God, not some socialist hack mouthing platitudes about doing good deeds and reforming our institutions into Heaven-On-Earth. Salvation can come through no other means. That core message the author overlooked.

I say thank God, everyone's God, for the season of lights.

Following the usual list of sticky-sweet and meaningless platitudes, he comes up with the "universal" solution - which is no solution at all. If anybody named here represents anything, it is the author who represents the usual Political Correctness run amuck we seem to increasingly have to put up with during the Christmas Season.

No wonder he is such a fan of 'Festivus'. It means nothing, it requires nothing, it ends in nothing except self-absorption,... the perfect ending for a Liberal Dream! It is striving to be a real character in the ongoing Jerry Seinfeld Show!

[richmwill]

"He even quotes a character from Friends to bash christmas"

The quote was from Seinfeld, not Friends. Please do not confuse a great show (Seinfeld) with the horrible, IQ-draining show that is called "Friends". Thank you for your consideration of this in the future ;)

Rich

[gcruse]

The show is about nothing except banality.

What took you so long?  It, just like their Hollywood TV show,
was a show about nothing.  The final episode, as they all sit in the jail
cell and begin bickering about nothing was the coda that rang the bell.

[freedumb2003]

What took you so long?

Took me no time at all. I watched exactly 3 episodes of Seinfeld and didn't laugh once. Maybe the humor is too NY for this un-hip Los Angeleno. I watched it 3 times so I could say, with certainty, whether I liked it or not.

I didn't and I never watched another episode.

[jimtorr]

The final episode, as they all sit in the jail cell...

Jerry and the other writers said of that final episode that jail is where the characters belonged. They wrote it to express their opinion of most of the characters featured over the ten years of Seinfeld.

The series itself was written as a satire of archtypal New Yorkers.

[Kevin Curry]

They all are basically selfish immoral people.

Don't push it. Santa Nietzsche might not leave a lump of humbug in your underwear drawer.

[sharktrager]

I GUESS IT wouldn't be very Christian of me to start an argument with the driver of the car with the bumper sticker that reads "Christians aren't better, just better off." I spotted this one in a shopping center the other day and, while I'm usually just mildly amused at bumper stickers - "What if the hokeypokey really is what it's all about?" - this one about Christians being better off scraped against some sensitive nerve, probably because it's that time of year when I figure Christians are reflecting, at least for a few minutes, on what it means to be one.

The whole idea of Christians thinking they've found the better way to live in this world - and bragging about it in public - didn't strike me as particularly Christian. I don't think that's what Jesus wanted from his followers.

I can't say for sure - because he was born two millenniums ago and hasn't taken calls on C-Span lately - but I don't think he wanted us to compare religions the way we compare major appliances or mutual funds. Jesus was a big thinker and eager debater; he held strong opinions. Unlike most liberals throughout history, he was not afraid to take his own side in an argument.

But I don't think you'd see Jesus walking through shopping centers slapping "Christians are better off" bumper stickers on cars. Excuse my heretical interpretations, but I think Jesus' message was pretty simple - you affirm your existence on Earth, your reason for being, with devotion to love, justice and peace.

But that's just me, and, as I said, I don't want to spend the Sunday between Christmas and New Year's having a religious argument. And, if I'm going to take the Christ-like approach, I've got to reach out and love the owner of the car with that annoying bumper sticker.

I believe that's what my particular faith calls on me to do - to love unconditionally. (A priest who works with some of the worst among us, murderers serving life sentences in Maryland prisons, finally got that through to me.) But Christianity doesn't have an exclusive claim on that concept. It's something that transcends race, nationality, ethnicity and religion - and we'd all be better off if we understood that.

And I think we do. I think we're getting it. Though the world as we view it in the West seems irreparably mad - with terrorist threats, endless violence and deep divisions along racial and religious lines - there is a transcendent spirit growing among us, and it seems to reveal itself more fully at this time of year. I may be wrong, or just thinking wishfully, but I doubt it.

I hear people dismiss as political correctness the use of the phrase "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," or, in recent years, the increased news coverage of Ramadan, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

I see it as something else - a recognition that, in the winter darkness, all people seek the light in some way. The senator from Connecticut, Joe Lieberman, seemed to have his hand on this the other day in New Hampshire when he told reporters: "In these difficult times in world history, it is more important for us as individuals to reaffirm our faith in our own lives, and also for us as Americans to reaffirm our birthright of religious freedom, to embrace the diversity of religion as a unique strength" of America.

You know, Festivus wasn't a bad idea.

When we first heard of it, how many of us shared with Frank Costanza - the character played by Jerry Stiller on Seinfeld - the attitude about Christmas that led to the creation of his holiday?

Frank (Costanza, George's father): "Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had - but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way."

Kramer: "What happened to the doll?"

Frank: "It was destroyed. But out of that, a new holiday was born - a Festivus for the rest of us."

A Festivus for All of Us would be good.

I'm not saying eliminate Christmas, but add Festivus.

The birth of Christ is one of human history's great stories. We take from it sympathy for the poor and homeless, and find in it the virtues of humility, charity and faith. I particularly like the idea of the wealthy and wise men giving gifts to the most destitute child born in a stable.

So the themes that come through at Christmas are universal.

And there are other aspects of the season that everyone - particularly in the Northern Hemisphere - can experience and celebrate.

Coming as it does around the time of the winter solstice and the longest nights of the year - the time of the sun's southernmost rise and set - Christmas fills us with the first twinkle of light and hope. Spring still may be a long way off, but on this side of the solstice, the days are getting longer, and we know that the sun will be full and warm the Earth again soon.

The ancients sensed when the darkness was losing its long grip on each day, and they got down on their knees and gave thanks for that because it meant they would get to plant crops and live for another year.

All these thousands of years later, astronomers understand the tilt and rotation of the Earth; they have explained why December is the darkest, gloomiest time of year, and we accept the science. But that doesn't mean we - all of us, every inhabitant of Earth - shouldn't get down on our knees and give thanks for this miracle.

As time goes by, as your head fills with the rancor of modern life, you easily can lose your sense of wonder about things. And knowing that this is happening to you - ask any jaded middle-age American to show you his "sense of wonder" - compounds the bad feelings.

So, being an idealist against my doctor's advice, I say thank God, everyone's God, for the season of lights. Its timing could not be better. I look at the winter sky and am renewed by the remembrance that the sun keeps coming back every year and the crows keep crowing and cows keep providing milk and babies keep being born and this whole scary and beautiful thing called life keeps on going.

I look to the last week of the year for the flash of understanding - that even in this modern age, nothing we mere humans do makes the sun come back, but the good we do for each other makes life tolerable and even, some days, wonderful.

[woofer]

"We will now start with the airing of grievances..."

"I gotta lot of problems with you people."

And now, for the "Feats of Strength". Festivus isn't over until you pin me.

[VOA]

The whole idea of Christians thinking they've found the better way to live in this world -
and bragging about it in public - didn't strike me as particularly Christian.

The writer should try on a Islamic Republic if this place offends him.