this is a hard time for me. my analytic mind can come up with a million reasons why the holidays are complete bullshit, but at the same time i cannot reconcile avoiding a time when the opportunity to come together with family and community occurs. in the long run i feel these gatherings should not need a 'holiday' to happen but the social condition is so that... well you get the picture.

take christianity by example. jesus was not born on christmas, a roman god was. and what saint is clause? beyond the commodification of holy days there begs the question of the historical significance of religion. this is not meant to shun religious belief but to really think analytically about it. a lot of religion is more socio political than theology. with christianity, constantine needed to ensure the support of the roman people in his conversion to christianity. one way of doing this was to make christmas coincide with a pagan celebration. to get of the christian backs, the baghadvad gita was written during a time when all of the men in india having read the sacred texts were choosing to become monks and head to the mountains. as such there was a shortage of males for labor in the cities. and so the gita was written to tell people that they need not be monks to fulfill their spiritual destiny. anything they did, even sweeping the streets, could be holy work.

politics not theology. and politics assume the people need policing. any thoughts?