What We Need Is An Alien Invasion

You see it time and again in the movies. The alien invaders are coming with superior intelligence, superior technology, superior everything. How do the humans win? Through resolve and determination and a timely dose of ingenuity. Yet what always lies underneath that crust? The population of the world working together. Putting aside their differences in an attempt to avoid extermination. In an "us against them" mentality, everyone sticks with the "us-es".

The fact that they are superior to us in every way doesn't matter, because our unity, and determination and resolve will take the day, as long as we work together. An interesting thought. Let me take it in a potentially unexpected direction.

The Goddess or other god that many people believe in is, by definition, quite different from us. An alien form. Not necessarily one who is directly attacking us, but is rather apparently doing it insidiously by getting us to attack one another, through teachings that certain qualities or tendencies of man require that they be shunned or killed.

Lets look at this. So many of the religions out there, whether divinely inspired or not, encourage destruction of your fellow man if they don't meet the mold. People blow themselves up to kill others based on their interpretation of the Koran. People shoot doctors who perform abortions due to their interpretation of the Bible. Hell, they even promote the death of homosexuals based on the same book.

Many other examples of a less immediate and lethal nature exist of conflict based on these various alien forces. Why then, don't we look to the hope of those movies. That humans will stand together amongst their own for the common good? To protect themselves from the idiocy that creates this division (or even if you believe it is truly a god's commandment, from the idiocy of said god) and protect our own?

Why instead do we have senseless wars and forums where people scream their vitriolic hatred at each other based on who one has sex with. Why do we have the anti-war center locally destroyed by a vandal while our own people die for no reason over seas? Why do we have people cutting each other down without the outside interference.

The whys are difficult. The result is more easily understood. All that it accomplishes is that the Goddess shakes her head and wonders why we won't allow ourselves to evolve.

A question that is one of the most fundamental questions about life, or something close to it.

Funny Tattoo

I know that it is part of their worst tattoo list, and I fully acknowledge that it could be considered irreverent by many, but I think this tattoo is hilarious. I saw it while on a break at work and laughed my ass off.

(Although I suspect somewhere down the line the guy might regret having that joke etched into his skin, just because it has gotten old if nothing else.)

Just thought I would share one questionable decision in life, or something close to it.

Solstices In The Southern Hemisphere

My very preliminary research into the question of Solstices in the Southern Hemisphere echoes this article. This makes sense, given the meanings behind each tradition, and the fact that they correlate with their counterparts in the year. I will go more into this but, being at work, I have little time at the moment.

For now, there is a brief answer to a question in life, or something close to it.

Yule

Erin posted that she was feeling peace this Christmas season. It was a nice post, and one whose sentiments I can usually echo in my own way at this time of year. Not the case this year.

The fact is that I have an internal struggle born of a loving gesture that I am having difficulty sorting out. You see my mother has encouraged the entire family to acknowledge Yule this year. At least in respect to the fact that it is the holiday that I celebrate. Everybody has jumped right on board with this idea. Thinking that since I celebrate Christmas with the family every year, the least they can do is give a token acknowledgement in return. Even I am mostly cool with this idea. Mostly.

You see, the whole family is planning on giving me the bulk of my gifts three days before Christmas. Take note kids. Become Pagan and get your toys quicker. Its good for adults too, find out what you got for the holidays so you know how much to spend in return.

Seriously, though, I have been wrestling with several issues with this. One of them being the concept that as it has been orchestrated for this year, each of our family members will be receiving gifts on their particular holiday. Receiving gifts. On these two holidays of giving, we will all be receiving our gifts on the right day, and giving on the other one.

I had thought for a moment that this was a great idea, then began wondering if it was in fact a sign of losing sight of the intention of the season. Re-orchestratring when it is that you got a bunch of gifts you didn't earn. This led me to an even greater horror, confirmed by talks of family dinner and gathering together on the Saturday in question.

This year, the Solstice wouldn't just be another day like in years past to my family. It wasn't going to be a ten minute gathering with my parents and my wife each giving me a gift when I came home from working late. A surprise, since I would have bet the former hadn't known what date it was. This was going to be a full blown holiday style family gathering/event.

Why is this bad? Isn't this what the season is about? Well, yes, it is. However, I have always taken advantage of the fact that nobody notices Yule, nobody gathers or makes it any big deal, and there isn't this huge commercial thing going on around it. It is just a quiet day where I can reflect on the year, I can pray, and focus on the year to come. I could set goals and measure how well I met the previous year's goals. It has been a peaceful, solitary, spiritual day.

I can't help but wonder if that might be lost in the craziness of a holiday now noticed. If we will simply be turning Christmas with our family into a week long event. I wonder if Yule will be one more day that was once a private time between the Goddess and I in which She will slowly fade out of the picture.

Of course, none of the family's plans for this year will cause any of that. It was merely the catalyst for the thought process. Still, it is a thing to think about for me this season. In all of the craziness and all of the points on our holiday itineraries, I need to make it a point to remember what this season is about. Then I will return to a holiday version of life, or something close to it.

Phone Numbers

For those of you who find yourself posed with the question of what your phone number is at some point, and space for a moment on what it is, don't worry. This in and of itself is not a reason for self termination. We all space on things at times. However, when this happens, there are certain things you shouldn't do. One in particular comes to mind now.

Don't tell the person you are speaking to that you can't recall because you never call yourself. This is not witty. Thousands of people say it, and what it communicates is that you shouldn't be allowed to speak to people unsupervised.

I know my phone number, and I never recall calling myself. If calling yourself was a prerequisite for knowing your phone number, only a few lunatics would be able to answer the question, and thus only a few lunatics would be getting phone calls from others.

The general intelligent public knows their phone number because they commit it to memory. You learn this practice when you are a child. If it is a new number, right it down. Carry it somewhere where it is easy to find. If you don't have that available, tell me that it is a new number and you are looking for where it is written, or that you have short term memory loss, or monkeys keep changing the damn thing. Don't tell me that you never call yourself. Calling yourself regularly would be crazy. Only crazy people announce unprovoked that they aren't crazy.

That is all. Return now to your regularly scheduled life, or something close to it.