Christmas is love

    Alright, it's my last day of work before my Christmas holidays start, and I don't know what to blog about. A friend gave me a great suggestion, but I'm probably going to post it after Christmas. Just because it's so not Christmasy.
     Theme. Got it, What makes Christmas for you guys? Or the whatever holiday you happen to be celebrating this December. For me, it's Christmas, so that's what I call it. I'm not trying to force it on anybody or anything, don't worry! But what makes this time of year so special?
     I don't have a cliched answer for this. I can't say that "seeing the whole family makes it wonderful!" because I don't see the whole family. The last time Christmas was more than just me and my parents was close to twenty years ago. The rest of my family lives 2000 km away, which makes it difficult to plan things. I think what makes Christmas special to me is seeing all of the love when you're out in public. I'm not talking PDA here, just people being decent to one another, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas with a smile on their face. This time of year gives me hope that humanity is inherently good, and that we can make it past all the shit that goes on for the rest of the year.
     This hope for humanity is especially important to me this year. There's been a lot of terrible events in the world these past twelve months, and there has been a lot of negativity in my own life this year as well, and things got bleak for me. Everything started looking better as we rolled our way into December: things started working again in my life, and I saw less hate being spread the closer we got to Christmas. I see love and hope this time of year, and the love and hope that I see every Christmas is what helps me get through the twelve months that follow.
      Far too many have forgotten what Christmas is about, or the meaning of Christmas has just got too bogged down in religion and consumerism, but! Christmas, when you get right down to it, when you scrape away the frost (because winter), is about love. Everything about Christmas's origins (not Saturnalia, it only shares a date with Christmas) stems from love. The love of parents seeing their newborn for the first time, the love of a god giving his people a saviour, and the love of other people coming together to celebrate.
      So please, let us love each other this Christmas. Let us put away our hate and mistrust, and our greed and jealousy, and let us love each other. No matter what you believe, or don't believe, we are all on this planet together, and we are all the same species.
     Peace and love. 

Dear Islamophobes,

     I woke up really happy today. I'm not one hundred percent sure why, but I think it may have had to do with yesterday. Yesterday was just an awesome day! I got to know some awesome people. It was simply amazing, and the feeling of euphoria carried over to today.      

          That said, I saw one of the most ignorant and Islamophobic things today. Like, I was disgusted. And it was posted by someone I used to have a lot of respect for! The post contained a video, and the following text: To those that say I am posting "hate" on my wall...please take 4 mins and listen and WATCH this video. Its not just the extremists with these barbaric views, its the entire religion!! If you still disagree after watching this, you are simply ignorant. These are the same people we are welcoming to our country right now. There is NO peace in Islam. Period. This video proves it.              You know you're off to a great start when the person posting it calls it "hate".       

       The video shows a group of incredibly conservative Muslims discussing the very conservative parts of Islam: the separation of men and women during worship, etc.. Basically the same kind of thing that super conservative Christians would be talking about. And one of the main things people were getting from this video was that all the people in the audience were agreeing! Two things about that:

1.     herd mentality. When you're part of a large group you're going to agree with what's going on, or you're not going to try to stop it at the very least. I've experienced it at Christian events, concerts, and the movie theatre

2.     THEY WERE A CROWD OF ULTRA CONSERVATIVE PEOPLE. And if I know anything, I know that any group of ultra conservative men will agree that women should be kept separate. Because ultra conservatism = sexism. 

I realize that basic logic and common sense is beyond some people, and that's a damn shame. But honestly. We need some sort of buffers for this kind of idiocy. Ugh.      

      I commented on the post, because of course I did. All I said was this: "Have you read the Koran? I have. Their religion is ridiculously more peaceful than Christianity. But, go ahead. Call me ignorant." Honestly, that's pretty tame for me. Must have been because of my good mood.

      Of course when the next person commented and went on a tirade about all of the atrocities Islamic people have committed throughout all of history. Way to stay relevant. So I may have replied to his comment... with an extremely sarcastic list of atrocities that I was sure glad white Christians had never committed. Like genocide. And slavery.       

        I didn't hold back that time...       

       What confounds me the most, is how do these people not realize that all the hate they're spreading is doing the terrorists' job for them? How can you be this blind? Not you specifically. Probably no one reading this...

       The sad part is that I realize these people (most/some) aren't being racist out of hate, but rather ignorance and fear. That's honestly so sad.

       I think what I'm trying to say is: Fuck Islamophobia. To any Muslim brothers and sisters reading this, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Peace be on all my siblings. We are all Children of this Earth. We should all love each other.