What are you Doing New Year's Eve?

I like New Year's Eve, even though I understand why many people don't. 

Most celebrations are outdoors in the cold, and the night involves hours of standing around waiting on a 10-second countdown.  The bars and restaurants that beg for your business every other day of the year suddenly charge exhorbitant prices just to enter throught their doors tonight.

If you choose not to venture outside, your viewing options are limited to the same Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years show they play every year, complete with Clark's incoherent countdown and lip synched performances by B-level celebrities. 

And if you don't live in the Eastern Time Zone, the countdown for your time zone might not even get rebroadcast at midnight.

That's what's wrong with New Year's Eve. 

But I like it anyway.

I like it because most everyone is off today and gets at least a few hours to think about what they accomplished this year, where they failed, and what they learned about themselves in the process.  It's a day to think about what we want our lives to look like at this time next year. 

We spend so much time trying to accomplish our lives' to-do list that we don't often get the chance to think about whether the things on that list should even be there in the first place. 

Today provides a chance to do that.  During the day, we can think about what we want our lives to look like and to figure out how to make that reality.

At nighttime, we can celebrate that all the crap from the past year is about to be behind us. 

For that, enduring an evening of Dick Clark's Horrible New Year's Eve show is a small price to pay.  

Still Slacking

One more week of 2011 means one more week of blog slacking.  I'm excited about coming back fresh in 2012 for a full year's worth of new columns, but I'm even more excited about the idea of taking nine days off work, one final week to rest my brain and see my family without external obligations.

So while I'm off doing all that, here's a link to tide you over until I come back.  Have a very merry Christmas, and I'll see you very soon.

Until then, if you want an inspirational holiday message, here's my post-flood reflections on God not being in the storm, but in its response. 

If you want some light hearted holiday cheer, you can read my first full length blog, about my still-ongoing struggle with the frogs in my neighbor's swimming pool.  Go ahead and laugh.  Tonight thank God its me instead of you.

The Real Meaning of Christmas

So this is Christmas, and what have you done?

No really, that's not a rhetorical question.  What has your Christmas season looked like so far?

If you are like most people, you've spent the last few weeks shopping, wrapping presents, attending obligatory holiday functions, and with any remaining time, finishing up your shopping. Maybe you've heard a Christmas carol or two along the way, but for most people, the obligations of the Christmas season have very little to do with the reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

It's no wonder that Linus had to spend the climax of "Charlie Brown's Christmas" to remind us what Christmas is about.

Of course, Christmas gets celebrated on a larger scale than Easter because it has meaning to people beyond it religious importance. It's a day that exists to celebrate Jesus's birth, but it's a day that means something different to everyone.  Like a good U2 song, it can be appreciated equally at the surface level, or for its spiritual message.

To some people, it's just a day about presents, to others it's about family, and to retail stores, it's a day of salvation from an otherwise oppressive economy.  To the couch potato, it's a season of plentiful food and college bowl games.To an overworked attorney/blogger (who sometimes doubles as the couch potato), the Christmas season increasingly represents a rare break from the crushing obligations of work in the professional world.
 
To Christians, the celebration of Jesus' birth represents proof that there's a Creator of the Universe who cared enough about the creation to become actively involved in it, and whose coming freed humanity from its own failures and limitations. 
 
Who is right?

I used to be one of those "Christmas Warriors" who resented any effort, by anyone, to make Christmas mean anything other than the sentiment two paragraphs above. 
 
I'm not one of those people anymore.  It's not because I'm less religious.  It's because of something Jesus said.  After all, who knows more about Christmas than him?  
 
When he was here, Jesus said that he came not only to provide a path for eternal peace with God in the afterlife, but also to make our lives better, more abundant, while we are here.  A recipe for that abundant life is to enjoy the pleasures--family, relaxation, togetherness--that this life has to offer.  Christmas is one of the few times in life that we stop to celebrate the things that make life good.  Even if that is all that Christmas means to someone, they are still getting its greater point at some level.   
 
Viewed in that light, even the "secular" side of Christmas has a deeper meaning.  
 
I don't have all the answers in life, but I do know this: God doesn't want our lives to be easy, but God wants us to be happy while we're here.  If Christmas is a means to that end, then I'm not going to get in the way of that by telling anyone they should celebrate it differently.  
 
Don't get me wrong.  It still drives me crazy that the commercialism and endless obligations of Christmas sometimes overshadow everything else.  Most everyone agrees that isn't supposed to be the point of Christmas, even if it sometimes slides down that slippery slope. 
 
Everyone knows Christmas is something deeper than that, even if few want to define it, for fear of not being sufficiently inclusive. 
 
So what is the real meaning of Christmas?
 
The meaning of Christmas isn't just that Christmas has meaning.  It's deeper than that.  The meaning of Christmas is that Christmas is meaningful.  So meaningful that it can still be appreciated, even for those who only appreciate a fraction of its intended message.  
 
Not many people know "Where the Streets Have No Name" is a song about Heaven, but almost everyone turns up the volume when it comes on the radio. 

Christmas is the same way. 

It's a day worth celebrating whether you understand the spiritual message of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," or whether you just hum along because the tune is irresitible.

Just Slacking, Week 2

I briefly interrupt my December of leisure to reflect on what might have been the worst week of my life.

There wasn't much that was good about the Nashville Flood of 2010.  Houses flooded (mine included), business were lost, and a good portion of my city was destroyed, and it still hasn't fully recovered. 

My only solace was that I had just started this blog the month before, so at least I had a place to vent.

Ironically, the flood somehow resulted in a water shortage.  One particular night of the ordeal stands out, even now.  It was the night I spoke to the least effective phone rep of all-time, who worked for the local water company.

It was hellish to live through, but I still laugh when I re-read the details.     

Enjoy.  I'll be back with an original Christmas-themed post next week.  Consider it an early Christmas miracle!

Week 1 of Just Slacking

The first week of my blog-related Christmas slacking has been a resounding success.  I have written anything, or even thought about writing anything, and still, more people seem to be reading than usual.  Perhaps there is a connection here.

If this keeps up I may never write again!  So whoever those people in Canada are who are reading at an astounding rate this week, keep up the good work!
 
I can't write any more, because to do so would come dangerously close to breaking my self-imposed Holiday Vow of Laziness, so I'm just going to leave you with some links.  I couldn't decide between something serious and something funny, so I thought I'd give you one of both and let you decide, based on your mood. 

This one is one of my all-time favorites about life's missed opportunities (or possibly just about a video game, if you don't want to think too deeply). 

Or you can read me making fun of a really dumb sign.

It's up to you.  I'm off to bed.