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The winter blues
It's that time of year again. Cold, miserable, and crap. And as if that isn't enough, there's the commercial side. It is one day. One day to "celebrate" the birth of The Son of God who may or may not have existed (and may or may not be TSoG)... incorrectly... to save face about the Christian movement hijacking the Roman Solstice (as it was upon the establishment of the Julian Calendar; sol invictus).
Now? Now it is a great big commercial disaster. Toys and gadgets line the shelves of supermarkets. We massacre pine trees, drag their decaying corpses into our houses, and hang all manner of plastic tat on them. Shops open later. Advertisers start playing Jingle Bells adverts from mid October and shops play the same awful Christmas musak from mid November - I'm surprised the poor employees don't go postal. And, to top it all off, there's a goddamn Santa in every goddamn department store.
It's all about greed. No, wait... It's all about giving. No, bollocks to that. It's about receiving. And not just receiving, but being with the in group. No no no, you can't have an Archos personal media player if all your friends have an iPod Touch. You can't have a book if your mates all get Kindles.
I can see why it would be massively frustrating to be a parent, but I suspect for an entirely different reason.
Now, don't get me wrong here. I've had a good look at mainstream religions and I just don't buy it. But, you know, why are we all going mental to celebrate the supposed birth of Jesus Christ? In fact, open your eyes. Look around. If you blank out the angel on the tree, the nativity scene (if you or your parents still do one) and those icky Christmas cards with such horrible gaffs as camels walking through what looks like snow... where is Christ? Where is he in this supposed celebration of him?
Those who lost their religion and think that Christ has forsaken us could do well to look at what Christmas has become, for if he ever existed, it is us that has forsaken his memory, and turned the celebration of his birth into the most bastardised horrible greedfest-infected excuse for a holiday ever visited upon this minor planet.
Don't worry. I get like this in winter. Maybe it is SAD, or maybe I'm just sad. Whatever.
There is some good news. Mick's Care Parcel arrived. Two bags of Tetley goodness to rescue us from this insipid muck that the French consider to be "tea". Or, worse, that awful poncey "oh look at me, I'm a bag of smashed up flowers" that doesn't even deserve to be on the same shelf as tea.
And yes, I'm as cold as I look.
We got snow. That night, a little more so everything was covered, but it might have measured a centimetre, so considerably less than the images from, well, pretty much anywhere else in the north west of France.
Here's a long exposure night shot:
The last thing? I thought snow, darkness, and a helicopter might have made some interesting photos. The snow wasn't powdery enough for the helicopter to swirl it up, but I still got a few action shots!
Your comments:
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Rob, 8th December 2010, 17:33
With Tiddler at a church school, she's been coming home talking of The Baby Jesus a lot lately. That's ok. I've come to the conclusion that most religions are best treated as a set of rules for getting through life safely and without upsetting your community too much. The rest of it is just a good reason for the ignorant peasants to abide by the rules. The problem comes these days when the scumbags^W^Wpeople behave as if there are no rules..
The only snow here is week-old patches of ice.. Tiddler keeps wanting to make a snowman, and the pictures on the news aren't helping.
Rick, 11th December 2010, 15:57
The rules work to a point - that point being when the rules claim to be The One True Way and everything else is an imposter. Blend that with the inherent destructiveness of human nature and you have a recipe for disaster. These days the scumbags^W^Wpeople follow the rules that could, arguably, have been intentionally misread for oppressive reasons. At least your little one is talking about Baby Jesus. I think far too many people have forgotten what this holiday is supposed to be about.
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