Has Christmas lost its true meaning?

Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday since I realized that “giving is more important than receiving” during the Christmas season.  Thanksgiving is when I spend quality time with my family.  There are no gifts during Thanksgiving so I don’t have to worry about forgetting someone or wondering if they will like what I got them.  Thanksgiving is also the last holiday left, which hasn’t been completely taken over by insane marketing and materialistic ideas.  Marketing geniuses can’t squeeze money out of every angle of Thanksgiving like they can with Christmas.  We have lost focus on what the true meaning of Christmas is.  Stores set a record by putting up Christmas decorations by the end of September this year, a whole month earlier than last year.  Each year, I feel like Christmas starts earlier and earlier and loses it’s meaning.  Sure, my family still gets together for Christmas Eve and Christmas day to celebrate and give our presents and eat good food but I feel like the day isn’t as special and meaningful as it’s supposed to be.  When I researched Christmas a while ago, I was blown away that the Coca Cola Corporation re-invented the image of Santa Clause that is widely accepted today.  Santa used to be a little dwarf and they changed him into a tall, old, and big jolly old man.  I do admit that I like the new Santa and I love walking into a store and hearing Christmas carols and I love all of the decorations in the cities and around campus but it makes me wonder… have we lost the true meaning of Christmas?

Celebration

In the recent election for the president of the United States of America, the US elected the first black president, Barack Obama. This election was a sign to the world that we are a diverse country that is becoming increasingly more equal. Earlier in the election, there was even a woman, Hillary Clinton, who could have been the democratic nominee. I’m still unsure which would have surprised the world more: a female president or an African American president.

November 4^th, Election Day, was watched by many all over the world to see who would become the next most powerful man in the world. My mom received an email from a Kenyan farmer, who was given aide after his house was burned down, talking about how monumental this day was for him and for his country- they even had a national holiday for this day.

Dear (name), I take this special opportunity to congratulate you and the entire population of America as you celebrate the victory of your new president. Whether you supported John Mccain or Barrack Obama, the victory that has been achieved is the victory for the whole of America ,the victory of Kenya and a victory of the whole world. Barrack Obama , being a son of a Kenyan father has made as Kenyans proud for having produced the president of the most powerful nation in the world. To that effect , the president of Kenya H. E. Hon Mwai Kibaki has announced that tomorrow Thursdays will be a public holiday so that we can celebrate the Obama victory,unlike in January when He Himself was controvertially declared the winner ,and instead of celebrating we went to war.Your elections and Obama victory is a big lesion for us. (Name) , i am so much excited by Obama victory. …..i am humbled and feel greatly honored that a man who shares some blood with me is indeed today the most powerful man in the world. May God bless you. May God bless America May God bless Kenya and may God bless ABM. I hope and pray that He will make America and Americans greater . I am praying and hopping that He will make your life more comfortable and make you proud to be an American. Thank you so much as we celebrate (name taken out for privacy) FROM KENYA

Electing Barack Obama has upset many people as well. Going to SMU, I have been surrounded by, what I believe to be, the most radical republicans. I was at an election party and people were talking about how the world was over and they were yelling extremely racist comments and expressing the most amount of hatred I have ever seen. The hatred didn’t stop that night either. The next week in the halls I would hear people talking about the disgrace that he will bring our country and several times I heard “He will not live to see his inauguration day” (student). Comments like this and even other death-related comments disgust me. While I am biased and am a supporter of Obama, I don’t think it is justifiable for anyone to criticize his being elected because he has a different skin color. So while I see this hatred, I try to hold on to the words of the man from Kenya and other people who see his win as a miracle and the start of a new era of change.

Author. "Dear (recipient)." Letter to Recipient. 05 Nov. 2008. Kenya.

Gay Marriage

On October 28th, gay marriage will be legalized in Connecticut. This legalization, will make Connecticut the third state in the country to not have a ban on gay marriage. I am hoping that the passage of this law will encourage other states to lift the ban.

Gay marriage has always been an extremely sensitive topic throughout our nation. But why? Why do people against gay marriage, get so passionate about the legalization? Every time I sit in class or am at a social gathering and the topic of gay marriage arises, there are always people who oppose it. It makes me angry that people think they can decide what is best for other people. Being gay is not always an option for people. It has been shown that people can be born gay, bisexual, or straight. I think it's insane that people can decide that you are "wrong" about something that was may have been decided for you. Even if someone decides to be gay, it's a free country and they should be able to choose whatever they want to do and whoever they want to be with without any questions asked.

What has always been hard for me to understand is how our country can call itself a "free country" if we have laws against who people can and can't legally be with. Without the option for gays/lesbians to marry legally, living like a married couple can be quite complicated. Without the legal title of being married, financial decisions and payments become much more complicated, visiting loved ones in the hospital can become a challenge, registering for any type of joint group can be restricted, and worst of all, raising children and making decisions for them can be really troublesome.

If it isn't clear to you already, I am ready for all states to legalize gay marriage. Everyone should have to right to decide who they want to be with without any questions asked and without judgment.

(if you have more interest in the legalization in Connecticut go to this website: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/nyregion/11marriage.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin)

"No one is promised tomorrow"

When diagnosed with multiple cancers, most people don’t say that the cancer saved their life. Kathy Brinkman, a victim of breast, liver, lymph, and lung cancer, proclaimed to the world that her cancer saved her life. Pre-diagnosis, Kathy “sweat the small stuff” and worried about little things in life. After she was told that she had very little time to live, she began to approach life in a new way. She pushed her prejudices aside and lived life to the fullest.

All too often it takes tragedies to make many people live life to the fullest. Brinkman was one of these many people. She became more outgoing and got to meet many more cancer patients who shared her same outlook on life once a tragedy befell her. If everyone in the world were able to have this same outlook on life without tragedy occurring, our lives would become extremely more peaceful. If we had a positive outlook on life we would be kind to everyone, not sweat the small stuff, not be greedy, and do all the good we possibly could do.

I’m going to make a personal goal to live my life day by day. For as long as I can remember, I have found myself constantly doing little things that will help my future. I haven’t lived in the moment. I studied hard to get all A’s and good SSAT scores in middle school in order to get into a good boarding school which would then prepare me for college. I pushed myself to go out of my comfort zone to live away from home at the early age of fourteen to prepare myself for the challenging task ahead of me. I pressured myself in high school to get great grades so I could go to the best college possible so I could get a good job later in life in order to be happy. As you can see, this chain is still continuing. I have been working towards the future constantly and looking forward to what will come and anxiously waiting for each day to be over so I can get to the next class, weekend, break, or graduation. Living like this has prevented me from seeing the little joys in life like Brinkman began to see. The little things in day to day life can sometimes make you the happiest. I challenge you, my reader, to do the same because not everyone is promised a tomorrow.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27101467/

Which/Who’s side?

Politics have never interested me as much as they have interested my family and my peers. Picking a party to follow and stand behind, backing a presidential candidate, and getting into fights with people over politics has never really been my thing. My grandpa, a radical republican, sends me multiple emails a day trashing the Democratic Party. When it comes time to fill in the ballots, he not only tells us to vote Republican, but he sends my whole family all of the “correct” votes and why those votes are the ONLY acceptable ones. The constant flood of (frequently) irrational emails being sent into my inbox daily has pushed me more and more away from thinking conservatively. Being forced to do something has always pushed me away from doing what I am told, like any natural teenager. Other than my grandfather, many of my peers, teachers, and members of my family are liberals. I have been able to hear and reason their opinions on the hot politic topics and see what the Democratic opinions are.

One day when I was putting my preferred party down on my registration card, I almost checked the Democrat box. But why, I asked myself. Because I don’t like what my grandfather says? Because the only Republican views I’ve seen were from a radical? Sure I come from a very liberal state but I wasn’t about to conform and be a Democrat either. Hearing liberal thoughts at school and conservative thoughts in emails wasn’t about to decide my political party and what I stood for.

It then came down to the decision on which party to register for. When this time came, I felt like a little girl who couldn’t read a book. I didn’t know much about politics and was relying on the opinions of my elders and not the facts that I could have been studying up on. At this point in time, I decided that I wasn’t qualified to decide to be a conservative or a liberal. For the meantime, I am registered independent. I will only make the choice that could possibly be one of the most defining moments of my life when I deem myself knowledgeable and worthy.

Miracles can happen

This morning, as I was watching the today show, I came to the realization that experimentation and hope can lead to miracles. Annie Dauer and her husband Greg are celebrating the fourth year of celebration of their child Sienna’s birthday. Mrs. Dauer not only overcame cancer with chemotherapy and radiation, but she was able to conceive a child naturally after she had her own ovary removed and re-implanted into her body. Prior to her chemotherapy, Annie had an ovary removed and frozen in hope that she would survive her cancer and one day be able to conceive a child with her own DNA. After an extended period of time after her ovary was removed and frozen, she overcame her cancer. With only two successful children born into the world after this experimental procedure, the doctors were skeptical about the chances of her actually conceiving. Four years ago, Annie, the third child to be born after this procedure, was born.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26772455/

Experimenting is one of the most important things we need to be doing in our world of medicine. This experimental procedure, which fails in many women, was one of three which have worked so far. I think the hope and determination in couples who do this procedure are incredible. They are keeping positive attitudes that the cancer will be abolished and they are also planning for their future after the cancer is gone. The hope they had and the willingness to go through with this amazing experimental procedure was astounding. This couple is proof that miracles can happen. With continued experimentation and hope, this procedure and many others may give hope to many cancer patients throughout the world. Cancer may be able to kill and limit people from the rest of their lives, but with hope and the willingness to take a few risks, cancer may turn into merely a bump in the path of life.