<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">even if neither of us are religious. spike</span><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:small"><font face="comic sans ms, sans-serif">Many long years ago when I was a rabid Methodist (if that's not an oxymoron) I asked an atheist friend if he celebrated Christmas. He got huffy and said sure - tree, presents, etc. And why not I thought? Their kids would feel left out, he said, and anyway it's not a religious occasion for many people. I know Jews who do the same thing. So the 'even if' above is not needed. Nothing whatsoever wrong with it, although Christians are always grousing about the 'meaning of Christmas' (a holiday moved to the end of the year to take over the traditional Winterfests, which really were prayers in a sense about surviving the winter. Let's have a big party before it gets really grim around here. ) So I echo: Happy Xmas and Merry New Year to all of us nontraditional types. Perhaps one day we will be the traditional ones, eh?</font></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:small"><font face="comic sans ms, sans-serif"><br></font></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:small"><font face="comic sans ms, sans-serif">bill w</font></span></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Dec 24, 2020 at 6:40 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div class="gmail-m_3874415262777622674WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> <a href="mailto:spike@rainier66.com" target="_blank">spike@rainier66.com</a> <<a href="mailto:spike@rainier66.com" target="_blank">spike@rainier66.com</a>> <br><br><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">>… everyone is calling me Saint spike (but I decide to mess up everything (which you know I would do (I am such a bastard that way …spike<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">I should clarify that harsh self-assessment perhaps. It really isn’t that I am such a bastard. I realized I am not really such a bad guy once I got to know me. The real situation is just that I am such an extreme iconoclast. So an extreme example of iconoclast am I that the tradition definition of the term had to be discarded or modified to cover my case. This forcing of a redefinition of the traditional term caused me to be even more iconoclastic, which again upset the new definition, for it had to now cover one so iconoclasmic as to wreck the usual notion of iconoclasm.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">But other than that… I am as traditional as Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof. For instance, I am not afraid to wish my online friends a Merry Christmas, even if neither of us are religious. There is no rule that says we can’t have fun at the winter solstice too. May you all have a health, happy and prosperous 2021.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">spike<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>
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