Flash Stories & Poetry Day 33: Reflection "The True Meaning of Christmas, Part II"

 

Hey, everyone.

So, I'm still feeling down and out over my problems. I was originally going to write a second part to the whole true meaning of Christmas, but I can't for the life of me remember what I was going to write. It sounds like a horrible shame, but the thought I had was barely there to begin with so it's no wonder it only took me two days to lose it. But, if the wheel gives me reflection again, I'll try to reclaim it.

Wheel of Genres, turn, turn, turn! Tell me the genre I will discern!





Today's genre is... Reflection.

Huh. Well, then. So, I just reread my last reflection to see if it would kindle anything... it might have. Let's see.

Thirty minutes on the clock: 30:00. And... go.

So, I did write something originally, but it wasn't any good. So, I just did some elementary research and restarted my time. According to what I found, the simple answer to the true meaning of Christmas is that God gave Himself to us out of His great love. But, the part that intrigues is the part about how God made Himself manifest into a living body and was born. God, the Word Eternal, as Great and as Mighty and as Terrible as He is and can be, humbled Himself to our level for the sake of our salvation.

This is an interesting thought because how many of us would humble ourselves in such a way? How many of us would become dogs to save them? Well, probably a bunch of us. A lot of people would do whatever they needed to if it meant saving their beloved pet. So, what about insects then? Perhaps that's a better comparison. When you compare the greatness of a human, everything we are and everything we can do, are we not like gods to insects? And would not compressing ourselves down into their form with their puny minds be a humble act? It definitely would be for one as arrogant as me.

Is this the true meaning of Christmas then? To humble ourselves before God? Jesus did lead by example; the Son became one of us to show us the Way. Seems like it; even the Catechism of the Catholic Church, at paragraph 526, says "To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little."

There's a passage after that that is quoted from the Liturgy of the Hours. The part that interests me is "We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity." God shared his divinity by sharing in our humanity. Humanity and divinity. Sharing. The dual nature of Christ, both fully man and fully God. Is this the true meaning of Christmas? The sharing of our humanity and God's sharing of his divinity? By getting into and sharing the Christmas spirit, we are sharing both human and divine behaviors? After all, we can't say we're sharing our divine nature since we aren't divine, we aren't gods, but if God shares his divinity with us, does that not make us divine to some small extent? After all, Jesus told us to forsake this world for his work, to pick up our cross and follow him. Can the word "divine" be applied to all beings in Heaven? Can "divine" be used in reference to the work that we carry out and the spirit we carry during Christmas? I don't know. I feel like I might be committing sacrilege here.

But, to share the divine and the human, that seems to be the reason of the season. Find God's divine meaning in ourselves and then sharing that with everyone else. It reminds me of a song called "The Mundane And The Magic." It's by a melodic death metal band called Dark Tranquillity (< and no, that is not a typo). There's a lyric in the song that goes "If I could merge the mundane and the magic / we'd forge a new unknown." ...I think that might be it.

***

 

Well, I would say stop the clock, but what with trying this over and then already stopping it before I even made the last few lines, it really has no meaning. Well, I don't know if what I wrote is sacrilegious and completely crazy, but I do feel like I touched the ethereal barrier and that I may have come closer to solving what this whole religion business is all about. It is something that has cross my mind before; the purpose of religion, the meaning of religion, and what it's supposed to mean. All too often, people say a religion should do "this" because that's just the way of the world, but that's not the point of religion. Do you remember what Jesus said to Peter when he told them he was going to be crucified and Peter said he wouldn't allow it? Jesus said, "Get behind me, Satan! You're thinking as man does, not as God does for the ways of man are not the ways of God." Yeah, keep that in mind next time you go criticize Christianity. Anyway... 

 

That's it for today. If you want to use the wheel I made, you should be able to access it here. And if you have the time, please check out my books for sale on Amazon which you can find through my author page. The link is below. Also, I reworked my Patreon page, so why not give it a look and consider becoming my patron. I would appreciate it.

Keep writing, my friends.

More About Bryan C. Laesch:

My Works:

Amazon: My Author Page, My Influencer Page
Facebook: Bryan C. Laesch, Bawdy Scholar
Patreon: Bryan C. Laesch
Twitter: BryanofallTrade
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Flash Stories & Poetry Day 18: Reflection "Lesson to Learn"

Hey, everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving.

Now, for today's writing exercise, I'm going to be doing something a bit different. Typically I spin the wheel and write as whatever genre I've been given, but since today is a non-fiction day, I'm actually going to do a reflection. On what? Well, my high school days, yet again. I really hope I don't sound like a broken record, but again, they do say your high school years are some of the most formative in your life and I do feel like something larger happened to me than the average high schooler, but there's a point beyond that. So, let's get started, and since I do tend to wax philosophic occasionally, I'll still be timing myself so I can stay on task.

So, today's topic is... Reflection "Lesson to Learn."

Thirty minutes on the clock: 30:00. And... go.

Now, like I said, some say your high school days are some of the most formative of your life, and I feel like mine were no exception. See, I attended Notre Dame High School in Harper Woods, and I loved it there. Sure, there were one or two people I had problems with, but for the most part, I relished my time at ND. I never used to like school until I went to ND. I wouldn't say it felt like home, but it did feel right and good in a way I can't explain.

Now, in March of my Sophomore year, right in the middle of our spirit week which we called Irish Week and celebrated during the week of St. Patrick's Day, a news story broke that wasn't supposed to yet where Cardinal Maida, the archbishop of Detroit at the time, would be closing 15 Catholic schools throughout the Archdiocese of Detroit due to money problems, and the schools that were closed included grade schools and high schools alike.

When my mother told me the news in the morning, I refused to believe it. But when I got to school that day, it was the only thing on everybody's lips. Nobody knew anything except for rumors, but at about 8:00 when our first class was supposed to start, Mr. Kuhn, one of our advisors, walked the halls and told everyone to gather in the gym. We were supposed to have some sort of spirit week activity in there, I don't remember what it was, but we were separated by class. Fr. Sadjak, who was principal the year before and my Latin teacher for the two years I was there, led us off in prayer where the emotions of the situation did overwhelm some of us. Course though, no one actually broke down because we were an all guys school. But the next few hours descended into a spirit week activity/bonding session as we all pledged to do what we could to prevent the school from closing. It was extremely heart-warming. Unfortunately, as can be guessed, we failed and were forced to disperse.

Angry at the world and wanting some form of retribution for what we lost, we took our anger out on others leading to a not-so-positive reputation at the school that most of us would go on to attend, Bishop Foley Catholic High School in Madison Heights. One teacher, upon finding out that a student she didn't know at the time was from ND was from ND, asked him, "Are you bitter, too?" Course when we all heard that, we wanted to slap the sh*t out of her. But, it was true; we were bitter. Some of us did assimilate into Foley, but most of us were loathed the experience. By Senior year, we had settled down, but Foley never met our expectations and was always worse than ND in practically every way. Attending Foley at the time felt like insult to injury. The world had curb stomped us, and then kicked us in the nuts while we lay in the gutter.

But as I look back, I can now see that things weren't that bad, and I do greatly regret my actions at the time. Foley welcomed us with open arms; some of the administration was pretentious as hell, but the student body and a good number of the teachers were fantastic and understanding. Looking at my year book, a number of people mentioning that they were glad I chose Foley after ND closed. What's funny about that is that I didn't choose Foley, my parents did. But as my Senior year was coming to a close, even then I began to regret who I was and what I had done. It was at that time that I could feel a change, and part of me didn't want to leave.

In the animated web series RWBY, a character loses the lower half of her arm in battle. A prosthetic arm is supplied to her, but she doesn't try it on. Everyone wants to see her return to "normal," but as she says, having lost her arm, that was her new "normal." At which point, her father says "Normal is what you make of it." He goes on to explain that just because something terrible has happened to you, that doesn't have to stop you from being who you want to become. It would've been great to have that piece of advice back then, but as a headstrong kid in my teens, all I wanted was revenge or to just surrender to life. I wanted Notre Dame back, and I would've done anything, no matter how impossible, to get it back. But, I never would, so I grieved.

Ten years after the fact, I am left with a pile of regret, but my reunion offers me a chance to set things right. That's one of the reasons why I'm going. Some people I do need to apologize to, and others I just have to show them that I'm not just a hardass and that I would take something valuable away from my experience there. But there's something else.

As you can tell, losing ND and going to Foley has had a great effect on me. I can't shut up about it and I can't stop thinking about it. I can't rest on it. Why? Is it just because I'm an INTJ and we think everything to death? Possibly. But, I have a feeling that the experience was meant to teach my something. I was supposed to learn something or do something, and I didn't and that bothers me. The whole experience was far too significant to just have been a random occurrence. What is it that I'm missing? I don't know, but I feel like I'll have a chance to accomplish whatever my task is at the reunion. Sure, I do get the feeling that it would've been easier ten years ago, but I think there's still a chance. That's another reason why I'm going.

Some of the people from Foley have been on my mind lately; one of them has been up there for longer than I care to admit. The psychics say there could be a connection between me and them, or that something important happened to them in their lives, but regardless, I want to know. I want to be enlightened. What is it about them that I can't forget them, that makes me miss them when I barely knew them, and that makes me want to see them so badly? I have a task to complete. I just have to make sure I don't fall back into my old habits when I get there and start acting the wallflower.

***

 

Alright. Can't say stop the clock as I did go over time. Not a lot though, maybe just a minute.

Anyway, I've got stuff to do during this holiday. Wish me luck at my reunion and pray that I find the answers I'm looking for or that I can finally find peace on this matter.

Keep writing, my friends.

More About Bryan C. Laesch:
Amazon: My Author Page, My Influencer Page
Facebook: Bryan C. Laesch, Bawdy Scholar
Patreon: Bryan C. Laesch
Twitter: BryanofallTrade
Youtube: Bryan C. Laesch, Bawdy Scholar