Thursday, April 28, 2011

B'ah Humbug!

Ooh it's been a while hasn't it? But it is time for a strictly one off
post! It won't be around for ever and a day so enjoy it while it lasts.

I wasn't quite sure where to post this. It's something I wanted to put
in writing somewhere, and this seems as good a place as any, it's about
the Royal Wedding, and it's about Christmas. What have they got in
common you might ask?

Well let me tell you about my friend, we'll call him Tom (not his real
name), but first a bit about me as well. I am Christian, I am a
moderate, liberal Christian with definite universalist sympathies, but a
Christian at the end of the day, and I quite like Christmas, both the
religious side and the more secular partying side. I get irritated with
the build up and having it shoved down my throat from mid August
onwards, but come the day I'm there with the Christmas pud and crackers.

Tom though is different, Tom is a staunch atheist. I don't mean the sort
that simply don't believe in God and it's no big deal, no I mean the
sort who is passionately atheist. He can't bare religion, he's not a
Richard Dawkins type (although he's a fan) who will go out of his way to
argue with you, instead he goes massively out of his way to avoid
anything religious. So Christmas is not a good time for Tom. He tries to
hide from it, he tries to avoid it, there's no Christmas dinner in the
Tom household, he'd rather work if only his employer was open on the
day.

Now I've always though, quietly, that Tom is a miserable so and so on
this issue, until recently.

You see I am a republican, not one that just ignores the whole royal
circus, but one who actively wants change. This is not the time and
place to debate the rights and wrongs of that argument, just take it as
read that I want an elected head of state and end to the current system.
I try to keep away from it, I try to ignore media stories about the
royals and try to take no notice, but it's always there. And in recent
months, with this endless build up to tomorrow's wedding it's become
harder than ever.

And it's made me suddenly have a huge amount of empathy with Tom, and
realise why he is such a miserable sod about Christmas, because I am
exactly the same about this wedding.

In the same way that Tom has no problem with me having a happy Christmas
and does not wish ill on my kind then if the wedding and the royals is your
thing I hope you have a fantastic time tomorrow, I really do. I hope
that the happy couple are very happy together, it's no skin off my nose.

Just please understand that I have now had weeks and months of every
corner of the media shoving it down my throat. In the same way that Tom
sees the Christmas lights go up I have seen the bunting go up. I have
been invited to parties I don't really want to go to to celebrate
something I don't believe in, just like him.

I don't care, I'm not interested and I cannot wait until it is all over.

2 comments:

Putz said...

i have two sentaments and then a statement<>><><>>>and then the sentament that you can't have your politics right now either<>><><><>can you believe i hadn't been here visiting your blog for months and there you are, going at it again<><><>whoopeee

Putz said...

your post crucified my comment<><><.let me try again<><>i tried to say my first sentiment was that it is too bad all the faldraralll has to have so much to do with your politics< our celebrities have very little to do with decisions<>>when i say poltics are put on hold for you, i sympathize<><><and i watched the bbc live for royalist statements and did get some wild enthusiasm