“The culling of Holiday Traditions”
I’ve learned a lot from racquetball.
Not from the game itself, but from talking to Brad Meyer during our breaks at
the gym. Brad and I play racquetball two days a week. Religiously.
“Religiously” is an indicator of how devoted we are to the game. We’re min
orly
devoted.
For example, last week, Brad sent me an email to see if we were playing the next day. The email read, “We have to decide about racquetball tomorrow. We probably should but I can be talked out of it.” The man was chomping at the bits. I replied, ‘I will if you will. However, by tomorrow, I may have changed my mind.”
I’ll have you know that, the next day, we were both there. The first thing we do before we begin is to loosen up. We do this by bouncing the ball off the wall for a minute or so. Then we get after it.We usually finish a game in 10 to 12 minutes. Then we take a break for about eight. The break gets longer after each game.
I like the breaks, because they take less out of me and they give Brad and me time to commiserate. You can’t commiserate inside the cubed court. The sound reverberates. I think that’s what it does. I’m liable to say, “Bradmeyerski, your shot didn’t hit the wall!” He’ll say, “Yeah, it was a good shot, wasn’t it?” -- See how reverberation can mess up the sound of stuff?”
During our first break last week, Bradford started griping about holidays. “How long are we gonna let traditions rule our society?” I took that to be a rhetorical question. Bradford talks in rhetoricals. “It’s all tied to the Frankincense and Myrrh!” he said. You know that don’t you? If you’re all gaga about being religiously correct, then why don’t Christians exchange Frankincense and Myrrh instead of clothes and jewelry? Somebody’s gotta put that whole tradition to sleep.”
Brad and I both believe differently when it comes to religion. Neither one of us can prove our faith. That’s pretty much part of the definition of faith. Anything that can be physically proved is no longer taken as faith. Brad believes the universe is likely part of a few billion experiments that extraterrestrials are carrying out to create different lifeforms. The theory has a name, but I don’t remember what it is. I need to start bringing a pen and tablet to our breaks.
Though, I didn’t intend to jump on the issue of religion when I started this piece, I must say that too many of us who consider ourselves Christians have gone nutzoid. To win souls over, we too often use “argument” and “anger” to get people to accept our faith in a particular supernatural event. Personally, I believe there’s a Jesus, a Holy Spirit, and God the Father; and that the three of them are God. So, my faith is based on something I can’t even understand.
To put the Christmas discussion to rest, I brought up Halloween. How much longer can that tradition continue? At least it’s progressed past the “Meet me in St Louis” version. People were nuts back then. Remember? Tootie walks up to Mr. Braukoff’s house, knocks on the door, and screams “I hate you Mr. Braukoff!” Then she throws a handful of flour in his face, runs off and eventually screams, “I killed the Braukoff!” You ask me, that’s not a healthy tradition.
Right now, you could kill off Halloween and it wouldn’t bither me a bot. You wanna know who started it? I read that the Irish considered the last day in October to be the midpoint between Autumn and Winter. I suppose it is. At such time the barrier between the soul of the living and the dead was supposed to be at its weakest, allowing some of the dead to cross over to the side of the living.
So for the last 70 plus years, kids have been celebrating the event by putting on costumes and going door to door so people can give them candy. Since I’m the one furnishing the candy, I don’t have nearly as much fun. But, get this. Brad enjoys it! He used to decorate his golf-cart and drive it around the neighborhood to hand out candy. Brad Myer! He says that October 31 is “All Hallows Eve”. Does it get any better than that?
Valentines Day? The history goes back to a supposed occurrence, one of which nobody gives a rosy rump about. Time to replace it. Easter? Yes, that too has religious significance. While it is unlikely that Jesus was born in December, history points to the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the first day of spring as being the time written that Jesus exited the tomb. One way the event is celebrated is by decorating boiled eggs and have kids believe that a giant rabbit hid them in obvious places for kids to find. I can’t explain the excitement involved in finding boiled eggs, but I was giddy with it for a short while.
Fifty or so years from now, will kiddos still be searching for boiled eggs? I’ll never know. When I’m on the other side, perhaps I can cross over on All Hallows Eve so one of the kids can tell me if they’re still hiding eggs at Easter. Makes me wonder if Tootie from “Meet me in St Louis” ever crossed over on All Hallows Eve to see how it was being celebrated. I doubt the fictitious character has been all that interested in it. She likely had better things on her mind. To prove that, one would have to make use of earthly knowledge to prove the supernatural. Good luck with that.
end
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