I hope that the people who have read my column this past semester have been entertained by them or at least were given food for thought.
I appreciate those of you who have had kind words for me about my column. For those of you who damned me to the 14th level of Hades, well, it is the thought that counts, right?
I guess I shouldn’t point out how this upcoming holiday season has nothing really to do with the (alleged) birth of Jesus. I don’t want my last column to start any controversy.
Oh, the hell with it, I just have to get this off my chest. It turns out that December 25 is the birthday of a god who was born of a virgin.
Yes, that’s right kids, it was Mithra. Mithraism was a big rival to the early Christian church.
You also have the celebration of winter solstice, Saturnalia and other pagan parties and festivals to attract people’s attention at this time of year.
The church fathers saw their pews empty and decided to have a party of their own. No one knew the actual date, so why not make Dec. 25 Jesus’ birthday? They decided to do this to try to lure people back to Christian services.
Christianity had a rough time trying to compete with the drunken orgies of other sects, kind of the ancient equivalent to the modern office Christmas party.
Little did the church fathers know that their little counter-programming celebration would turn into the mass worship of capitalism.
Turns out the pagans won after all, since few people today really stop to contemplate the meaning of Jesus on Christmas.
We still have the pagans ceremonial rituals, like gift exchanges, the decorated tree, Santa Claus, the Yule log, and so on with the added bonus of commercialism.
Christianity never could extinguish these rituals, so they incorporated them into the church’s celebration of Christ mass. Somehow, I don’t think they teach this part of history in Sunday schools.I guess this is why so many people are turned off by this time of year. The crush at the malls and stores, the mad scramble to find just the right gift coupled with the chronic shortage of money does make us miserable.
I prefer to use this holiday as a time to catch up with family and friends that I haven’t seen during the past year. It is nice to get together, have dinner and just talk.
If you have children, there is a certain kind of magic seeing them enjoy what Santa has brought them on Christmas morning as long as they didn’t ask for a Playstation 2.
With Christmas being just a few weeks away, it must mean this semester is also at an end.
This turns out to be my final semester at ETSU. It’s hard to believe the end has finally arrived. I guess it is true that life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.
So I have earned a master’s in history . now what? Well, this is where life starts to get interesting. I now have to go prostitute myself to potential employers in the hopes that one will be infatuated enough to offer me money to perform some service.
I can deal with this after New Year’s, the start of the true new millennium. The year 2001 was supposed to be a space odyssey, but I will settle for it being a new personal odyssey on my way to fame, wealth and power.
Actually, I would settle for just having enough money to travel and buy books, but why not dream big?
So what will the new year bring for you? Probably pain, joy, boredom, happiness, agony, ecstasy and a perfect omelet. I just hope that this does not occur all on the same day.
I do hope love comes for everyone. The word is love, it’s so fine, like sunshine, say the word, love.
So I end my career, albeit a brief one, at this paper with this parting thought. The love you take is equal to the love you make.

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