the Other Blog

On December 28, 2010, I posted my first post for the online journal, The Other Journal, where I write for the religion & media blog, "Mediation." The piece was awkward for me to write due to the requisite third-person prose, so as to keep the academic integrity of the journal. Academia schmemia! Just playing around. I am truly so proud to be chosen as a contributor to the conversation, especially as I represent the only female in the bunch. I also have the growing feeling that I might be the only progressive thinker, especially as the editor "squirmed" at the mention of Marcus Borg and Richard John Neuhaus, informing me that they stink (verbatim) as they are unorthodox, which he doesn't appreciate. Who's got two thumbs, a vagina, and is wickedly unorthodox in her theology? THIS GIRL! Ahem. As for upcoming posts, get ready for supporting quotes from heretic mystics, Catholics and even (gasp!) women! Additional radical suggestions accepted. Please comment.

It's (Not Yet) Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

If you're having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit, if it does not yet feel as though Christmas is nearly upon us, fret not! It isn't. The four weeks of waiting for Christmas, liturgically marked with the season of Advent, remind us that Christmas is not yet. Minister and theologian Fred Craddock writes, "Everybody is already having Christmas except the church." And this is true. Red and green decor adorns city streets; stores pump out Christmas music and promote holiday deals that end December twenty-fourth; Santa Clause has come to the mall. I myself have already watched two Christmas films, imbibed grotesque amounts of eggnog, participated in two gift exchanges, and parted ways with many a person with the phrase, "Merry Christmas." But I find myself saying it to people I do not think I will see again before Christmas. It is a wish for the future; not the present. Merry Christmas to you, when it happens in a week or so. Merry Christmas to your not yet celebration of joy and love with family and friends. Merry Christmas to the season that is nigh. Christmas is close, I can smell it. I can hear Christmas echo from this coming Saturday, I can feel the anticipation in my heart and chest. Christmas is coming coming coming, but not yet. First we must wait. First we must crave Christmas.

RESOURCES:

"Sunday, December 26, 2010" by Fred Craddock, The Christian Century (Dec. 14 2010)