Well, it's finally happened.  

 As we head into this advent season I wanted to reflect on Christmas and what it means to me.  And then I realised that it means nothing to me.  At least this year.  I'm bored.  I'd rather just head out to the lake with Peter and James and go fishing.  Jesus can come too.  I hear he's pretty good luck on the water.  If I found myself at the manger (of Christ, Orsiris, or Horus depending on your myth) I'd probably be too busy playing with the animals to care what's going on.

I wish that the Canadian Public school system would teach philosophy and logic at a younger age...  Touching on it briefly in grade 12 doesn't count.  It sure would be nice if the people that I pick fights with had the same tools that I do.  I guess I wouldn't be able to so thoroughly trounce and browbeat my opponents if that were the case.  

Okay, maybe we should keep things the way they are...     

The question has a theistic tone.  I don't mean it to.  I don't believe in the same kind of God that most people do.  You know, the one that sits there in the great beyond and has a plan for your life...  The eternal clockmaker or the eternal meddler depending on who you prefer.  But even an atheist spiritualist like myself (atheist meaning I don't believe in a theos, or a classical God, not that I don't believe in a God beyond definition, a life force that we call God for lack of better words) sometimes wonders what to do. 

 Well, tomorrow is Halloween.  Children are going to come to my door asking for the kind of treats that their parents withhold from them ordinarily and my response is supposed to be to give it to them.  Are we celebrating scarcity and encouraging hoarding?  I thought that this was supposed to be a celebration of the macabre?  I shouldn't really knock it though.  As morally ambiguous as the holiday is at least I'm not being hypocritical by celebrating it.  Not like easter.

 I'm actually hardly a warrior cleric.  I am neither a soldier nor a Churchman.  I have recently returned to Christianity after a time away and am heading towards ordination with the UCC.  My soldiering is limited to so far standing on the bow of a warship with a loaded rifle waiting for the order to return fire against the Iranians.  Thankfully the Iranians never fired...  So neither did I.