Thursday, 20 December 2007

• Not my own work.

  I read this on my dad's friend's site and thought it was really cool.  So, this is Brant's and I'm just letting y'all see it too.
  
  Happy Wednesday!

  No, wait.  Check that.  You likely know that “Wednesday” really means “Woden’s Day” -- a nod to the Teutonic god.

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  I, for one, do not worship Woden.  I'm not wont to worship Woden, and, well, wouldn't worship Woden.  Perhaps you pursue a personal relationship with Woden.  But maybe not.  So forgive my insensitivity. 

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  Granted, in this culture, the fourth day of the week is, most obviously, “Wednesday” – why, it’s as obvious as, say, December 25^th is Christmas – but we shouldn’t simply say things like that out loud because “it’s been that way” for centuries.

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  It’s time to recognize, and celebrate, our differences.  Joining the celebration of religious expression is easy:  Simply be offended by everyone else’s religious expression.  Celebrate good times, come on.

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  What’s disturbing:  Our own government continues to refer to this day as the Day of Woden, clearly embracing one religious view over others.   Even our public schools embrace Woden, throughout school publications and practices.  While I’m not steeped in Teutonic lore, I suspect, based on our monthly cafeteria calendars, that Woden remains the Teutonic Lord of pizza square, pear, brownie and choice of milk.

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  Not to mention these “Saturdays” we keep having!   I try to be open-minded about this stuff, but c’mon:  “Saturn” is just the Roman equivalent of the Greek god “Cronus”.  What did Cronus do?  Oh, boy.

  “Cronus was the ruling Titan who came to power by castrating his Father Uranus. His wife was Rhea. There offspring were the first of the Olympians. To insure his safety Cronus ate each of the children as they were born…”

  That's pretty much not cool.   I don’t want to judge, I'd have to walk a mile in his shoes, etc., but -- I don't know, man -- this just seems out of line. 

  But he gets his own DAY for that.  He castrates his dad, eats his kids…and then mall stores honor Cronus with “Saturday Sales Events”?  I don’t even want to know what goes down at those things. 

  So yeah, stop saying “Saturday” around me.  New rule:  Even if the culture is steeped in it, and even if most even prefer it; even if it might seem to be reasonable to expect I could accommodate it, heck, even if it IS Saturday:  don’t say it.

  Times are changing.  I remember my public high school (!) marching band, performing that song by Chicago: You know what day of the week, in the park, I think it was the fourth of that month named after a militaristic dead white guy.

  I doubt the whole crowd at the Assumption, Illinois football game was into Cronus.  Krokus, yes.  Cronus, pretty much no.  Couldn't we have found something else to play?

  Let’s re-name everything, and pretend our culture appeared out of thin air, thirty seconds ago.  Sure, it would be a massive, and massively strange, project.   We could make a court case out of it, since the Constitution itself doesn’t afford different protections for expression of mostly-dead religions and expression of religions more widely practiced.

  Or, we could just chill, and recognize that, for example, Saturday is Saturday, whether I worship Saturn or not. 

  And we could even say that December 25^th is “Christmas” whether you’re a Christian or not.  Heck, maybe then, with one of the most painfully annoying melody lines ever written, we could even wish you a merry one.

  
  
  

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