Posted on 11/08/2004 7:28:03 PM PST by carrier-aviator
Yeah and this means no Chinese or movie day this year. Damn.
I pretty much ignore Christmas...my wife and I save a fortune.
Why would I wish non-Jews Chag Sameach (a happy holiday) on Succot if they aren't Jewish? That's just dumb.
I agree with you to a point. I would prefer a "Great Americans Day" maybe in early March, when we could really use a day off. If MLK is your guy, great celebrate. If its Lincoln great, if its Michael Moore...well, you get the idea. No group is left out. Cancel the MLK Day, President's Day, Columbus Day...etc.
Yeah, my husband - who grew up in the SF Bay Area in California - gets a big kick out of that one!
But we don't worship her.
I have friends at the Post Office here in Washington, DC and maybe just maybe I can get 100 special stamps created for just for you.
What option would you like?
And do you celebrate them?
I like to think that I, too, only say, "Merry Christmas" to others in my community.
You appear to have a rather parochial view of your own "community".
I rather prefer to think of "everyone" as part of my community.
I suppose so.
By the way, Merry Christmas to you, my friend.
Please excuse my severe "dumbness".
I wish others in my own community (though not of my own particular faith) A "Merry Christmas" because that particular day is a day of great joy for me.
I have no problem at all wishing others in my community (though not of my own particular faith) a Merry Christmas because I sincerely wish that everyone, on a day of great joy for me, also experience something on that day that will make them "Merry". The thing that makes them merry on December 25 does not, in my own view, have to havfe anything to do with the religious significances (to me) of that date.
It is merely a wish that I extend to someone else that they, too experience joy on a day that is most special to me.
I think it sad that you would consider such a wish to be "dumb".
I will tell you (in case you have not already guessed) that I am not Jewish. Nonetheless, I always appreciate it when my Jewish collegues or Jewish folk within my community wish me joy or happiness on one of the days special to them.
I do not consider them "dumb" for doing that.
Instead, I graciously thank them for their expressions of joy.
Am I missing something??
Suppose a Muslim wished you a "Happy Ramadan"?
I think it sad that you would consider such a wish to be "dumb".
It's dumb because why would I wish someone Chag Sameach on Shemini Atzeret when they 1)have no clue what it is, 2)if they did it would not mean anything to them as they do not celebrate it, and 3) If they are like many on FR would instead take the opportunity to either 'witness' to me or tell me about their lovely Replacement Theology?
We Jews have learned over time, through many painful experiences, that not everyone is part of our community and some of those who are not part of our faith would hope for it's destruction.
I bet you think that as a Christian person, I would get all offended and stomp my feet and go off in a huff, thinking, "Why, How Dare HE! He knows I am a Christian! How offensive!"
If you think that, my friend, it says more about your own prejudices than it does about me.
For in fact, if a Musline were to wish me "Happy Ramadan", I would quite graciously say to him or her, "Why, thank you, my friend. Thanks for wishing me an entire month of happiness. May you also enjoy a most happy Ramadan as well."
To take offense when none was intended seems to me to be really quite petty and mean-spirited.
How sad.
How sad it is that your friends who profess Christ seem to have a rather singular lack of sensitivity to your feelings.
If I were your friend, and you were to wish me a Merry Christmas, and I knew that your December 25th meant work or Chinese food or a movie for you, I might be inclined to respond to your wish to me for a Merry Christmas with something like this:
Thank you, my friend. And my best wishes to you and all those close and dear to you for a most joyous Christmas Day. On that day, whether you are at work -- or doing whatever you are doing -- please know that you are in my thoughts. And also please know that I will be giving thanks on that day that you are included as a part of my world. Best and most sincere wishes for a most Merry Christmas."
It is precisely because I would understand that Christmas Day for you is not a "merry" day (because of the circumstances of work or food or movies) that I would want to wish you joy.
How sad it is that your Christian friends feel -- for some reason -- that they are u nable to take the simple act of kindenss (wishing you a Merry Christmas) when they know that you will not be having good day.
I'm happy they don't. It's not my holiday nor will it ever be.
Excuse me if I presume too much here, but it does rather seem to me that you appear not to wish to share with others outside your own faith community the happiness that comes to you from celebrating Shemini Atzeret because some (many?) have responded to expressions of your own religious joy by witnessing to you.
It is almost as that those who witness to you feel that it is their job to drag you into the Kingdom of God.
I won't bore you with my own view on any of that, except to say that my understanding of the Law is that the Greatest Commandment is to Love God, and the Second Greatest Commandment is like it -- Love Your Neighbor as Yourself.
My God commands me to love you first above anything else. Witnessing is not the greatest commandment. It is also my belief that a sovereign God is quite capable of getting the people He wants into His kingdom.
I love.
God is the one who converts peoples' hearts.
"I'm happy they don't. It's not my holiday nor will it ever be."
I don't know what is sadder to me -- the apparent fact that your friends are so insensitive to your feelings, or the apparent fact that you would shut out simple expressions that you experience happiness on a particular day.
Trust me on this, there are many of us Christians that wish others "Merry Christmas" because we consider it an act of kindness -- not an attempt to "make it your holiday".
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