When Someone Drives You Crazy . . .

Start behaving well, and you will feel better. This is what Jesus would want, and He is there in the rug store. Maybe he was embarrassed to tears, like when your kid has a tantrum in public, which pretty much captures the scene. I stared off at the log-pile of rugs. I was trembling, and you could have opened walnuts with my self-righteousness. But Jesus doesn't hold this against a person. His message is that we're all sort of nuts and suspicious and petty and full of crazy hungers, and it all feels awful a lot of the time, but even so -- one's behavior needs to be decent. So I would try.

Although Annie Lamott was dealing with "The Carpet Guy," her attempts to deal with her own righteous anger is a parable for anyone moved to wrath, especially during the stressful holiday season when it's so easy to be moved to wrath. Sometimes, she says, one has " a moral and spiritual obligation to clean up one's side of the street," regardless of who is right and who is wrong.

You can read her entire essay at Salon.com. (Temporary free access allowed to web site in return for watching an online ad).

The History of Christmas

"Christmas is not only a Christian festival. The celebration has roots in the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, the festivals of the ancient Greeks, the beliefs of the Druids and the folk customs of Europe."

While we celebrate Christmas in honor of Christ's birth, the ways we celebrate it--our customs and observances--have their roots in millenia of winter celebrations. The BBC's Religion & Ethics web site has a nice "History of Christmas" which explores the roots of our Christmas festivities.

Simplifying Christmas :: True Story

On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition--one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on. The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents. As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure.

The New American Dream's website for Simplify the Holidays has a moving true story sent in by one of its members. It contains a good idea about using alternative Christmas gifts to help us simplify our Christmas.

An Audio Advent Calendar

The BBC's website for Religion & Ethics, provides an unusual audio Advent Calendar. Each day leading up to Christmas provides a piece of poetry, music, or Bible reading, some read by famous voices, such as Derek Jacobi and Lionel Ritchie.