Here we go again (1 Viewer)

[ColinEssex]

Just over a week to go to the most overrated, boring and miserable depressing time of the year.

Shops closed, telly boring, people hating relatives they have to be nice to, too much food, presents you wouldn't even consider buying. Plus to cap it all you have stupid religion being rammed down your throat, daft songs about some woman who gets pregnant.
You get stupid TV adverts for so called charities trying to con money out of you so it can be skimmed off to give the directors a nice holiday in the Seychelles. In town you practically get mugged by so called charity collectors in the street, they usually pocket 10% before giving the rest to the money grabbers.

If that isn't enough, you have extra days of disruption because Xmas day is on a weekend.

Fact, there are more suicides at Xmas than any other time of the year. Not sure if I can wait 3 years before I end it all. What's the point?

Col

 

[plog]

Hey buck up. At least you have internet trolling to bring a little joy into your life.

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/suicide.asp

 

[Vassago]

Happy Holidays, Colin!

 

[stopher]

Just over a week to go to the most overrated, boring and miserable depressing time of the year.

It does seem to span the extremes. A colleague at work struggles to make ends meet yet strives to make Christmas the most magical time of year for his children. They live for this special time of year.

My father passed away this year and we will ensure my mother is embroiled in our festive order. But I doubt that will distract her much from the reality of the first Christmas without the man she has spent many decades with. For her I suspect Christmas will serve as nothing more than a milestone of his not being here. And maybe this pales to those who spend the festive periods completely alone.

Shops closed, telly boring, people hating relatives they have to be nice to, too much food, presents you wouldn't even consider buying. Plus to cap it all you have stupid religion being rammed down your throat, daft songs about some woman who gets pregnant.
You get stupid TV adverts for so called charities trying to con money out of you so it can be skimmed off to give the directors a nice holiday in the Seychelles. In town you practically get mugged by so called charity collectors in the street, they usually pocket 10% before giving the rest to the money grabbers.

I avoid TV and also the shopping. I hope the weather stays good because I love walking in the countryside. I hope we can take my father-in-law for a walk too. His health is poor but if it's a good day we can get him out for a short walk some place.

If that isn't enough, you have extra days of disruption because Xmas day is on a weekend.

If you can endure variant British weather then I can't see the abstract holiday arrangement being a big concern.

Fact, there are more suicides at Xmas than any other time of the year. Not sure if I can wait 3 years before I end it all. What's the point?

Col

Urgh. Winter really does seem to magnify the darker spirits of our lives. And Christmas particularly if you don't have that family support. I don't have an answer for this other then I hope I can continue to see life for it's positives regardless of the adversity.

Best wishes of the season to you Col and to all forum members

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Hey, Colin - good to see you are still around.

You say "telly boring" but... when is it not boring (at least in general terms)? I know you sometimes comment about the USA vs UK comparisons, but in this case, the USA is no better (and probably no worse) in this particular subject.

Then we get to "Plus to cap it all you have stupid religion being rammed down your throat, daft songs about some woman who gets pregnant." That is a major contributor to the "telly boring" comment earlier, I think, though the songs are more pervasive than just "special programs" on the telly. The shops that AREN'T closed have those songs piped in to their announcement systems so that they can say "Attention Shoppers - new marked-up bargains marked back down on aisle 7" and then return you to the mind-numbing 497th version of "Jingle Bells" or "The Little Drummer Boy."

As to "people hating relatives they have to be nice to" -I have often contemplated the sad but true statement that we can choose our friends but our relatives are chosen for us. I've had at least a couple of cousins whose constant whining about aches and pains made me consider giving them a Hypochondriac's Dictionary so they could at least intelligently complain about some new maladies. I was getting sick of the old ones.

The charity cons are so bad these days that my wife and I take the approach of "Charity begins at home." We know about local charities that have a good ratio of money intake to money spent on their stated purpose. I.e. low overhead for the fat-cat charity directors. They get our money that we earmark for giving. Nobody else needs to apply, thanks.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

At last Colin, we agree on something!

I was watching my wife wrapping Christmas presents for the thirty-second year in a row. It seems like it was only last week that she was wrapping presents. Oh wait, yes she was wrapping presents last week ... but you know what I mean..

On the Brightside I do enjoy a Christmas lunch, and I chuckle when I recall one Christmas my son got a laser pointer. He was shining it around, having the dog jump up at it. He decided to shine it on his mum's behind. The dog bit her. Lucky for him he was her favourite son, and survived!



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[NauticalGent]

Hey Colin, Merry Christmas! May the good lord bless you and keep you!!

 

[kevlray]

It is sad that what should be a wondrous holiday has been so tainted. Christmas should be a time of giving (not necessarily presents). It is somewhat of a religious holiday (again tainted by the Santa Claus mentality). Of course to Christians did not even celebrate Jesus birth until someone got the idea that it would overshadow a pagan holiday at the same time. A little bit of research shows that Jesus was not born in the dead of winter (flocks were in the fields). Fortunately or unfortunately, I have not relatives that I have to spend Christmas with (we live too far away from them). This last weekend we had an early Christmas with my oldest daughter, her young son (17 months old) and her fiance. Christmas day we will be spending with my youngest daughter.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

Simple deduction will also show that Jesus was a "black man" in the American definition of the word which I find highly amusing.


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[plog]

Why do you have to bring nationality into it? What term does the queen use for 'black' people?

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

Why do you have to bring nationality into it? What term does the queen use 'black' people?

Everyone thinks that Jesus Christ is a white guy. I understand that America is much more religious than the UK. I understand that the white Americans have a problem with the black Americans.

I deduce this from:-

• Things that are/were said about Barack Obama.
• One lady in the news recently referred to Michelle Obama as a monkey.
• There are recurring and numerous stories of black men being beaten/shot by white policemen.
• There are discrepancies between the number of black persons that get jobs and white people that get jobs.
• The prisons are full of black people.

In other words it is amusing that your chief religious icon is obviously black by your cultures own definition.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

Correction, maybe I should have said "coloured" instead of "black" does that make more sense now?

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

Why do you have to bring nationality into it? What term does the queen use for 'black' people?

Oh, and I can't think of a better way to cheer Colin up....

 

[The_Doc_Man]

The race of Jesus is perhaps open to question. He was probably Middle-Eastern, which is not black by USA standards. He might TECHNICALLY be called a "swarthy Caucasian" in some circles. If he had been more of Egyptian heritage, he might have been partly balck because the Nubians who were conquered and assimilated by the Egyptian empire were black. However, he was a descendant of Hebrew slaves who didn't mix with Egyptians very much for SOCIAL reasons, sort of like the pariah issue in India.

This is not me trying to worm out of your statement. Since I don't believe in the divinity of Jesus, I don't care a rat's patootie what race he was, but I am up a LITTLE bit on the social history of the area so I have to report the racial ambiguity that exists in this context.

Besides that, if God had wanted Jesus to be black, white, swarthy, or purple, the Christians would claim that it was in his power to do so. Now... that leads to the question of what Joseph would have thought when he saw that white boy in the crib and how SENILE he had to have been when Mary told him, "Oh, he's that color because God is that color."

 

[Vassago]

Besides that, if God had wanted Jesus to be black, white, swarthy, or purple, the Christians would claim that it was in his power to do so. Now... that leads to the question of what Joseph would have thought when he saw that white boy in the crib and how SENILE he had to have been when Mary told him, "Oh, he's that color because God is that color."

That's fantastic!

I've always understood that he would be Middle Eastern, if anything. I think depictions of him being white have existed far longer than America though, as seen in the numerous artistic murals created over the centuries. It's certainly not strictly an American belief.

 

[Tieval]

Apparently he was the son of God and for all we know God may be Chinese.

On this logic all argument about his race or colour can only be guesswork

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

God may be Chinese?

Unlikely, as I understand s/he created everything, so s/he existed before China did.

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[Uncle Gizmo]

That begs the question, who created God? Now, that could be the Chinese ....

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[kevlray]

My co-worker is from Egypt and for a lot of people he probably would be considered 'Black'. But back to the point. Jesus was a Jew living in Israel. So his skin was probably pretty dark. Much darker than what we have seen in thousands of paintings (he most likely was not a white Anglo-saxan with flowing brown hair).

 

[AnthonyGerrard]

God may be Chinese?

Unlikely, as I understand s/he created everything, so s/he existed before China did.

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I thought you said he created everything before China did?!