Comfort and Joy

Merry Christmas, Beloveds. This morning I am not celebrating the birth of Christ, but the potential awakening of all humanity. (Don't ask why this drives me, it just does. Some people blog about sports, some about politics, some about sex, but for some reason, Jayne needs to blog about Spirit, but only on Sundays . . . See my Fictitiously Asked Questions (FAQ) if you want to know more about these little Sunday Sermons.)

Back to the birth of Christ--many religious scholars theorize that:

• Jesus wasn't born in the Bethlehem that is south of Jerusalem, but instead was born in Bethlehem, Galilee, much closer to Nazareth (which is about 65 miles North of Jerusalem). (map from here, click on picture to enlarge. Note - Bethlehem Galilee isn't on this map, but is described elsewhere as 10 km northwest of Nazareth.)
• Jesus' birthday is sometimes calculated as early April, near Passover rather than the dead of Winter, and sometimes as late September, 2 BC.
• Christians appropriated the pagan (Roman) celebration of Saturnalia, and tacked on December 25 as the birth of Jesus to coincide with the pre-existing winter solstice feast.
• There have been too many mistranslations of Hebrew (Reed Sea, not Red Sea, Mary was a "young woman," not a "virgin") to render the mythical Biblical stories as historically accurate.

If you want to really go down the rabbit hole with historical Jesus, read Jesus Lived in India (in my sidebar). The practice of holy men following omens and signs to find the latest reincarnated spiritual leader, usually when the child is around two years old, not newborn, is still followed today (Dali Lama, anyone?)

But you know, the more I research religious history, the more I realize its striking similarities to the legal profession. There is no absolute external Truth, is there? There are only beliefs, theories and arguments. And enough varying facts, data, "experts," statistics, cases, examples, analogies, metaphors, scriptural passages, archaeological evidence, emotionally appealing (or repelling) rhetoric to support whatever it is you choose to believe. Shoot the arrow first, then draw the circle around it -- bulls-eye, every time!

Another thing. There is no such thing as a person's absolute "character." So says Malcolm Gladwell, in the popular and provocative book I just finished, The Tipping Point. (I know, I know, I read too much!) We tend to overestimate the false idea of "character" and ignore the small environmental and social impacts that can make a "good" person do "bad" things and vice-versa.

Crime plummeted in New York after a massive clean-up of the graffiti on the subways and enforcement of fare-beating. According to the "broken window" theory in criminology, people with criminal tendencies are more likely to commit crimes when there are low-level signs of neglect in a community. Broken windows, aggressive panhandlers, etc. "invite" criminal behavior. People assume nobody is in charge, nobody cares, and anarchy is one natural response. Address these little environmental issues, let those with criminal tendencies know their actions are being watched and violations enforced, and crime drops dramatically.

Seminary students told to give a lecture on the "good Samaritan" parable will literally step over people in distress if they are told they are a little late to give their sermon. Children taking tests do not fall into clean groups of "cheaters" and "non-cheaters." Whether or not a child will cheat on a test depends on a variety of social, environmental variables.

Apparently, people behave (become actually "better" people) and perform better if their environments are cleaner and more organized.  (Note to self. . .)

Character, according to Gladwell, is not what we think it is, or, rather, what we want it to be.

[Character] isn't a stable, easily identifiable set of closely related traits, and it only seems that way because of a glitch in the way our brains are organized. Character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests, loosely bound together and dependent, at certain times, on circumstance and context. The reasons that most of us seem to have a consistent character is that most of us are really good at controlling our environment.

This idea gives me hope for humanity . . . and myself. We are all capable of pretty much the full spectrum of human experience and actions, from the most brutal violence to unimaginable loving service and sacrifice. If you think you are not, I submit you have held both your environment and imagination in impossibly tight reign.

If we understand which contexts and environments encourage our more positive human traits, we can choose to create those environments in our lives.

Are you a hostile, warm, fiercely independent, dependent, aggressive, dominant, passive, light-hearted, overly serious, optimistic, depressive, bitchy, patient, sweet, cruel, loving, profound, banal, insightful, vapid, sensual, repressed, caring, apathetic, deep, superficial, irreverent, spiritual person like me?

Do you, too, possess a bundle of seemingly contradictory traits and tendencies, making you rock life's pendulum back and forth, depending on the situation, between being a "good" person and a "bad" person (if only in your own head)?

Perhaps you can join me in Rejoicing today - Ahhh, I am human, this is normal, you are just like me. Sure, we can strive to be "better," or to better control our environments, and I hope that we do those things. But mostly, I hope we can release our need for absolute, mutually exclusive, either/or Truth regarding any external reality, including our own natures. 

I hope you all find Comfort and Joy this Christmas Day. I hope you are gentle and forgiving with yourselves. If you have told yourself you are a "bad" person lately, I hope you can remember the context, the environment, the triggers, and work to change those instead of punishing yourself. You are not the least bit "bad," Beloveds.

You are the Hero of your own story, the innocent child, the Light and the Way. Do you honestly doubt you are anything less?

Comments

[Shephard]

I was watching, of all things, Christmas Unwrapped, on the History Channel. And one woman's comment was quite stark admist the holiday history. She basically said those people wailing about the Christ being taken out of Christmas are laboring under the misinformation that he came BEFORE any notion of winter holiday celebration. And he did not. As I mentioned in my own blog a couple weeks ago, 700 years before Jesus (that Jesus) they were decorating everygreen boughs and trees and giving gifts. But just like you said so beautifully... shoot the arrow first, then draw a circle, and voila, bullseye.

I liked what you said here in this post. We'll talk. ;)
~S

[Jayne]

I know! And pagans are upset that Christians have interjected Christ into their solstice feast! (have you ever heard that Dar Williams song about the Christians and the Pagans (some family members), sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner? Very sweet and funny.) The blinders some wear. Sigh. I hope we can talk soon. : )

[Theresa]

I'm a social scientist at heart, and a firm believer that absolute truth lay somewhere within the shades of gray. You speak to me.
And as always, thanks for reminding me that I'm not bad.

[landon]

girlfriend, you are seriously cracking my shit up.

If I understand where you are going, I completely agree. getting folks to embrace their shadow is hard work. we gotta keep trying, though.

[Jayne]

Theresa: You can be bad if you want ; ) . . . social sciences (obviously) and anything to do with our human experience fascinate me. And you speak to me, too, dear.

Landon: Hi, welcome! Glad to crack your shit up any old time : ) . . . I do write and explore a lot about our shadow selves. (Here, I think I was going more for the Merry Christmas, we're all good and bad and everything in between so let's forgive ourselves and each other and make the little subtle changes that we need to make so that it is more likely that we're happy with our behavior kind of thing. I think.)