We killed a god

For a long part of my childhood, I was taught dualism. Not that there was a good god and an evil god warring against each other, but that there was God the creator of all things who was omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient; and that there was the god of giftgiving and gift withholding who was also omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. It's late and I'm tired from traveling, so I'm not going to go any deeper with a cheesy story when it is obvious that I'm speaking of old Santa Claus himself.

Many people worship God the creator January thru November, and then they switch to the god of December or the god of the winter wonderland who is equal with the God of the rest of year, only not a creator, accept for the fact that he creates billions of toys every year.

You know, when the pagans needed something or wanted something such as a good rain for their crop season, they would try to please the god of the storm that could bring that needed rain. They had gods for everything and did all they could to please the gods in order to receive what they wanted or needed at the time. As winter comes in, our kids "need" toys and other fun stuff to play with, so like the pagans, we tell them that they better please the toy god so that they receive these things they want. The toy god, like the god of the storm of the pagans, sees everything, knows everything, and therefore is in a sense everywhere. "If you're nice and not naughty, you will please the god of the toys and he will bless you with some toys. If you are naughty, he may not bless you with toys, or maybe with not as many toys. Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, God the creator sees you too and He wants you to be nice. But you don't get anything from Him at Christmas; you have to wait until you die for His gifts."

7 YEARS LATER - "Well, Santa is not exactly real. ... No, we weren't lying to you; we said 'Whatever you think'. ... The presents from Santa? Oh, those were put under the tree by us. I guess we did kinda lie, huh? We just didn't want you to feel left out. Besides, what's the harm of believing in the pagan god of the storm, I mean the god of the toys, I mean Santa Claus?.....God? No, no, no, He's really real. ... Seriously, He is. ... Yes, He really does see you when you're sleeping...Yes, He really does know when you're awake...Yes, He does know if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake...I know there's no difference, but trust us, He's for real, really real."

Well, we killed the false god. I can't believe we ever considered letting our children believe in such a thing. We never pushed the whole Santa thing, but we never shut it down as false either. Now, as April approaches, I'm cleaning my gun. It's rabbit season, you know.

Comment from my wife's blog...

This was posted on my wife's blog by my long lost friend who better be coming to Dallas soon, read it here in the comments after my wife's awesome post about your's truly: http://meditatewithme.blogspot.com. It's awesome, hilarious, and frog-in-the-throat causing.

If ever there were a dork to me
If ever this was a possibility
If ever one was filled with Glee
Compare Rick Harper and this you'll see

I first met Rick who used Arnold's voice
Thy husband thought he had the jokes of choice
But the Eastern spiders at University Terrace
were no match for one of God's fairest

The heavens agree, I have not doubt
Thy husband who was once muscular and stout
Thy arms have shrunk, thy chest is weary
Replaced with theological query

He's serving God with an unknown zeal
All spiders in his path he will kill
The lurking widow and brown recluse
and Satan's infection of the blues
Cannot stifle this man of God
To Dallas or Austin he will carry Aaron's rod
A priest of Christ he has become
No longer a dead sinful bum

To Dallas we must ride where the sun will set
To see the Harpers and coffee get
The friendship of the H Houses will not stop
Our horses will ride to the coffeeshop!

Drinking and talking: it gets no riper
Discussing Luther, Calvin, and Piper
Talking and laughing, scorning and mocking
The poor and pathetic Arminian church doctrine

Oops. We've judged a whole people
People who worship under the same steeple
Forgiveness we seek; we'll pray in the lot
With the bad breath of an espresso shot

Back home to our wives who are on the phone with each other
Acting so strange, kind of like my mother
"What were ya'll doing?" the wives humbly ask
"We were at the pub sharing a flask!"
"No way" she said behind images of hell
"Yes way" I said as I wished we drank ale

"Just joking" I said. Just coffee for us
As we sat, sipped and tried to discuss
The tenets of faith, hope, and love
Losing salvation and the Spiritual dove

Stop with the rhymes. We must leave now
In a car, a plane, or a saddled cow
To Dallas we go. On Jupiter lane
My coffee and talk just isn't the same
Without thy husband it's different you see
No more cups of undilluted VB
The conversation is stale the coffee is bad
I talk to myself; isnt' that sad?

I get me a Demon and stay up half the night
All by myself in P.J.'s dim light
The atheists and gays won't talk to me
My friend is in Austin learning theology
I tell the clerk, "Please put my coffee on the tab until
My friend comes to pay with a fake dollar bill"
No, it's not fake I laugh at the girl
It's his grandpa's, you see, he's the jokester of the world
She frowns, she doesn't get it
My attempt at humor has failed
Thy husband's not here, so I embarrasingly bailed
Out of the shop and back to my house
To be with my wife and fight with the mouse

from THE LOST POEMS OF ANNE BRADSTREET

3, 2, 1, ZERO

I find myself checking my counter anxiously everyday to see how many people have read my writing. When my counter goes way up, I get a little prideful; when my counter doesn't go up, I get a little down. Why? Because of pride; I want people to read what I write, as if I have something on my site that is worth reading. When I would ask myself about the purpose of my counter, I would lie to myself in many ways. The ultimate purpose, the real reason for the counter is to feed my ego. So, I have removed my counter to do away with a source of a problem.

Be Back Soon...

I've got 36 pages I have to write. No time for blogging at the moment. Be back soon.

That's a lot of work I know, but I just got some good news!!! I really did just save a lot of money on car insurance by switching to Geico!!! Woo Hoo!


Peace
Rick