Life is but a short journey. We have a few scant decades in which to enjoy the company of our friends and family, the beauty of the world and the bittersweet contradictions of the modern age. Whatever our personal metaphysics, we can be certain that we only get to live in this world once, and that it is what we do in this world that really matters, regardless of what we believe happens after our time is over. When our burdens weigh heavy upon us, the journey can be arduous, so it is vital we enjoy the blessings of life whenever we can.
Celebrate winter however you choose, but whichever festival you favour, celebrate something - whether it is just a few short days free from our labours, or nights of overindulgent eating and drinking, take the time to savour the experience of being you. There is no greater blessing than life itself, as any parent will attest. Accept each day as a gift, find your own path, and travel it in peace.
See you all in January for more genial nonsense!
A lovely sentiment. Have a great holiday season yourself, and I look forward to more of your blog in the New Year.
Paddy
Posted by: Paddy | December 22, 2006 at 02:44 PM
I find it funny that even though my dad is a conservative catholic, and I'm a radical transhumanist, we both have essentially the same worldview, only cast in radically different terms. We also both enjoy the Big Lebowski.
Posted by: Patrick | December 23, 2006 at 01:46 AM
Have a great Swik, mate.
Posted by: Peter Crowther | December 23, 2006 at 09:54 PM
At current I'm celebrating Christmas and New Years in an extended stopover with extended family in Akita, Japan. After some relatively sedate New Years in recent memory, I'm looking forward to ringing in a relatively sedate '07 in a completely different part of the world.
Pity is that I won't stay around long enough for the tug-of-war festival that's held here in February--for well over 500 years, the local citizenry have held a festival in which hundreds of people gather in a main thoroughfare and yank on either end of a gigantic rope (the knot in the middle weighing over a ton) to the point of exhaustion. How's that for a winter festival?
'06 was the year I began to enjoy the fruits of your intellectual labors, Chris, both in this blog and in your published work. Please continue to edify and entertain, and I can only hope you get as much out of the experience as we readers do on our end. God bless and enjoy ushering in the New Year soon.
Also, I hope you anticipate that at some indeterminate time months from now, I will appear on the shores of England and will attempt to collect on my share of enlightened discourse from you in person. Appeal to ancient regional folklore if you wish to dispel the wandering yanqui apparition!
Posted by: Jack Monahan | December 28, 2006 at 01:21 AM
Thanks everyone! Posting will either resume later this week, or early next week depending upon how swamped I am.
Jack: if you make it to the UK before my wife and I leave for the US, happy to meet up with you here - let me know as and when. But be warned, we could be living in the US by the time you get here! :)
Posted by: Chris | January 02, 2007 at 11:32 AM