A Christmas Spirit is on the Loose

by Dewayne Allday

October 30th, 2010

As Halloween passed by and Christmas enters in, there’s a spirit on the loose but not if the Grinch can stop it. To hear him tell, Christmas makes him mad as hell, so no wreaths, or no bells, no carols or meat, no smiles and no laughter, or new jobs that we keep.

“ Year after year, I've put up with it now I must stop Christmas from coming But how?”, said the Grinch.

If you remember the story goes, there was once a foul soul named Grinch and the villagers in Whoville didn’t demonize the Grinch for just any reason; he really was evil, so evil that everyone was afraid to say “Grinch” during the holiday season.  Sure, they would hint around in whispers and behind screennames on the internet, but everyone was so afraid Grinch would hear them and come down from his green supremacist house on the hill and terrorize the city some more.  Yes, people were scared when they heard that name “Grinch” and he really liked the smell of that stench.

It all started in school at a time when Grinch was a very impressionable young fellow.  He was a very intelligent and talented young man with sheen, yet he was different because he was hairy and green.  He had a crush on some girl in his class and she him, and one Christmas he decided to give her a card on a whim and profess his love but “a few” of the kids in his class laughed at him and he got so angry and that anger just grew ‘til he blew.  He was one of the smartest ones in the class, but his anger was great and made him an ass.  He didn’t want to see laughter and he didn’t want to see song and he didn’t want to see the city succeed therefore became a very foul creature indeed.  He pillaged and stole, he was nasty and cold, and a lot of his peers didn’t like him as he grew old.

No one ever called him because his answering machine said,  "If you so much as utter one syllable, I'LL HUNT YOU DOWN AND GUT YOU LIKE A FISH! If you'd like to fax me, press the star key."

So much anger inside from hurt long ago, you’d have thought that poor guy had lost his dark soul, but there was one little girl that lived down in Whoville who had innocent eyes and a heart big as google.  She hated to see such anger and pain, the separation and games, and more importantly wanted to see Whoville flourish again.  She went to see Grinch in all his green splendor and Grinch wouldn’t see her so thank God she persisted because the Grinch learned that hatred produces hatred and love produces love and that day Grinch felt God’s love from above, and left that elevated house on the hill to help rebuild the city and live with the people, even those in Whoville who were different than him.

There were bells, and wreaths, and carols and meat, so many smiles and laughter, and more jobs thereafter.   People moved back to rebuild, not being scared any longer and Whoville rejoiced and was blessed to be done with that mess.

Merry Christmas everyone, I wish the best for you all.  Let’s not forget ‘tis the season, Jesus Christ is still Lord.

Who am I?

"Who am I?" is a question I have been asking myself for many years.  When one peels back the layers of skin of oneself, each layer consisting of past experiences and influences (both positive and negative), motives, ambitions, dreams, realities and freedom to be who we are meant to be while at the same time being able to step outside of all those things that have been in our past which influence our decisions and look back at them in an unbiased manner and say to ourselves "Is that really who I am and what I believe or is it what the influencers in my life believe?".


When it comes to politics, many times we are affected by our parents, our relatives, our friends, our boss, or even our race but how can we really support something that we don't believe in ourselves?  We should understand completely what we believe in before we can truly get behind it and in order to completely understand what we believe in we first have to completely separate ourselves of our biased natures and past experiences and seek truth; then compare those truths to what we were taught.  You may very well find out that you were raised a republican and you have come to know yourself and that you are still a republican or maybe you are a democrat or a Tea Party person, or maybe you're like me and you are getting closer to who you are and you realize that quite possibly you wish there were another party out there which believed in what you believed in.


The problem we run into is if we are not either 100% Republican or 100% Democrat then we don't truly believe in either party, therefore we don't get as excited and support them like we would if we were 100% believers.  People still vote however for both parties, so there is some belief or that wouldn't happen at all.  I've heard people say "I'll just vote for the lesser of two evils", and that statement in itself is quite scary to me.  Jesus Christ stated a very profound reality in Matthew 17:20 - "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."  If we really believed in our party and the candidates themselves really believed in their party, then they could certainly be the "movers and shakers" of our society, but instead they don't truly believe, and likewise a lot of corruption, complacency, and self interests have infiltrated the leadership in our society.  My point is, if they really believed, then the United States would continue to be a very influential world leader for many years into the future.  This country, the United States of America, would hold every diligent politician's heart and it would be extremely hard for any of those "other" distracting things to enter in.  If only we had the faith of a mustard seed, we could move mountains.


As far as the Tea Party, no, I'm not quite ready for them, although I am inspired by their spirit and I do believe our country could and should learn a lot from our ancestral leaders like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and others.  There might just be a time for the Tea Party if things don't change but unfortunately, as inspiring as it is, the Tea Party is only a very delayed knee jerk reaction to a country and politics that have been slipping without true and effective leadership for years.  It's very name symbolizes revolution.  Do we need a revolution or civil war in this country?  No, and the separation and variation between the Democrats and the Republican parties are growing larger.  I would most rather support a new party that took the best of "both" the Democrats and the Republicans and applied them to the ideals of the party forming something more "balance" and less "rebellious".  A lot of thought would have to go into the name of this new party however because the name "Tea Party" smells like revolt and rebellion and isn't really a "long term" party designation.  Maybe something a little more unified like the Unification Party? No, not really a good idea; people would confuse us with Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church a worldwide political and religious cult who owns the famous newspaper, the Washington Post and also has given large sums of money to both political and religious leaders alike.  Not a very good idea to take money from this fellow since he believes he is the new "Saviour" and "Messiah" and should run the world.  So, let's consider some other names such as the United Alliance Party, the Party of the United States, the United Republic, the United Democracy, or the Party of Change?


So, who am I?  I suppose for now, I should call myself an independent.  I am myself.  I am me.  Some might accuse me of riding the fence, however the truth is that I don't care much about the fences, only the "big picture" seen outside of all the fences.  All I care about it what I think is right based on unbiased observations of what I believe will work, won't work, what is strengthening us and what is weakening us.  When I speak of "us", I'm speaking of firstly the "United States of America" and secondly "the rest of the world"; the people, the animals, the economy and the environment are just a few of those things I am speaking of that add up to the United States of America, the country that I love.