Connect! Unite! Act! Boston, Ashville Meet-Up Info — What if...?

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Welcome to WHAT IF Wednesday! WHAT IF... you gave up religion? Should you continue to celebrate the holidays like you used to, or is that hypocritical?

After all, Christmas is only 129 days away! I gave up religion, officially, in grade school. I was precocious and an early reader, and my analysis of the logic in the first book of the Bible in our Lutheran Sunday School class got me a talk with my father which ended with me deciding that if it was my choice, I wouldn't be going anymore. So I did not.

But I kept up with the Christian holidays for years. When my children were small in the early 1990's, I decorated the daylights out of our house, tree and mantle and sparkly garlands around door jambs.

We had an Easter Egg hunt each spring and I invited all the kids in the families of our friends. A few years we had a yard full of kids. It was sweet and memorable.

But once my girls became adults and moved out into the world, I stopped doing all of it. For a long while I was conflicted about this, but I've come to enjoy my winters free from the crazy commercial chaos which is the pre-Christmas season. I no longer make apologies for my lack of "Christmas Spirit", after all, I am not a Christian.

So this winter I'll spend my days saying, "Happy Holidays" to those who say it to me. To those who wish me "Merry Christmas", I will return the favor and wish them a "Merry Christmas", too. It costs me nothing and makes them happy. Who needs to be Scrooge and spoil someone else's happy moment? Not me!

I won't be attending any church services or reflecting on the status of my soul, which I doubt I have, either. But I will reflect on my actions of the past year and look for ways to be better, to do better and to hope for better for everyone on Earth.

Because peace isn't owned by religion. Even atheists can believe in peace.

And I do.

How about you?

Yes, I know it's a crazy topic for the sweltering dog days of August. But when it's hot and humid all I dream of is cool, cool snow.

:-) as always...

#StrongerTogether for a better future for OUR posterity

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