From: owner-eda-thoughts-digest@smoe.org (eda-thoughts-digest) To: eda-thoughts-digest@smoe.org Subject: eda-thoughts-digest V2 #365 Reply-To: eda-thoughts@smoe.org Sender: owner-eda-thoughts-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-eda-thoughts-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk eda-thoughts-digest Friday, December 24 1999 Volume 02 : Number 365 * If you ever wish to unsubscribe, send an email to * eda-thoughts-digest-request@smoe.org with ONLY * the word unsubscribe in the body of the email * . * PLEASE :) when you reply to this digest to send a post TO the list, * change the subject to reflect what your post is about. A subject * of Re: eda-thoughts-digest V2 #xxx or the like gives readers no clue * as to what your message is about. Today's Subjects: ----------------- ET: To Grandpa ["Karen Miller" ] ET: The story of life. [Jeremy Hodgins ] ET: Why Christmas is Pagan [JewelAng@aol.com] ET: A computer christmas carol! [Jeremy Hodgins ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 23:00:24 -0800 From: "Karen Miller" Subject: ET: To Grandpa hello My grandpa is dying of cancer and I decided to wrote poems to him since I love him so much To Grandpa To grandpa I remember when I was young I would go over to your house To spend the night The next morning to go out in the shop And help you Paint or Just to watch you And have you tell me things That I had no idea about We would talk About everything How school was doing Me answering like a pro To every questions While feeling like I could be some one Sharing my dreams And my hopes In your ear A 10 year old girl Wanting to be like you Having stories to tell Knowing all about Engines and how to build things I always wanted to be like you And help you Whenever I could Cause I wanted to be the man and Help every one out Just like my grandpa I love you grandpa!! comments or questions I would love Holly ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 00:51:38 -0800 (PST) From: Jeremy Hodgins Subject: ET: The story of life. THE STORY OF LIFE Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there, to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson, or to help you figure out who you are or who you want to become. You never know who these people may be (possibly your roommate, neighbor, coworker, longlost friend, lover, or even a complete stranger), *but when you lock eyes with them, you know at that very moment they will affect your life in some profound way. And sometimes things happen to you that may seem horrible, painful, and unfair at first, but in reflection you find that without overcoming those obstacles you would have never realized your potential, strength, willpower, or heart. Everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance or by means of good luck. Illness, injury, love, lost moments of true greatness, and sheer stupidity all occur to test the limits of your soul. Without these small tests, whatever they may be, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight, flat road to nowhere. It would be safe and comfortable, but dull and utterly pointless. The people you meet who affect your life, and the success and downfalls you experience, help to create who you are and who you become. *Even the bad experiences can be learned from. * In fact, they are probably the most poignant and important ones. If someone hurts you, betrays you, or breaks your heart, forgive them, for they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious when you open your heart. If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but because in a way, they are teaching you to love and how to open your heart and eyes to things. Make every day count. Appreciate every moment and take from those moments everything that you possibly can for you may never be able to experience it again. Talk to people that you have never talked to before, and actually listen. Let yourself fall in love, break free, and set your sights high. Hold your head up because you have every right to. Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself, for if you don't believe in yourself, it will be hard for others to believe in you. You can make of your life anything you wish. Create your own life and then go out and live it with absolutely no regrets. Most importantly!!!, if you LOVE someone tell him or her, for you never know what tomorrow may have in store. And learn a lesson in life each day that you live. Jeremy :) _______________________________________________________ Visit Excite Shopping at http://shopping.excite.com The fastest way to find your Holiday gift this season ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 17:06:58 EST From: JewelAng@aol.com Subject: ET: Why Christmas is Pagan I just found this and I thought you guys should all read it. I found it intresting, to say the lest. I found it at http://www.gothicpreservation.com . Go to the website. You might enjoy it. If you don't like that sort of thing, you can have fun insulting yourself. Have fun. And have a Merry Christmas...or maybe Winter Solsitice, hell I don't know anymore.... Rebecca Why Christmas is Pagan Written by Sin Sinister I sat down with a born again Christian friend of mine not to long ago. We were at a restaurant having a few beers when we got onto the subject of religion. I kind of rolled my eyes a bit as my dear friend tried to save my soul from the burning of Hell for all eternity. We rather have different opinions on the idea of celebrating Halloween - he says it’s the Devil’s holiday. I asked my dear friend if he was going to celebrate Christmas this December and he looked at me sort of puzzled and replied "Of course! It’s Christ birthday." I looked at my friend with a smirk on my face and called him a pagan. He looked at me wide eyed and said "You called me what?" I replied and said "PAGAN" once more. "Why do you call me a pagan?" he asked. So I asked him "Being a Christian and all doesn’t your God require that you keep your worship to him pure and clean, free from pagan or heathen influences?" He replied "Yes, God does say that in the bible." "So why then are you celebrating Christmas for? After all it’s origin roots are deeply rooted in pagan beliefs - and to me that isn’t considered to be pure worship" I asked him. That’s right kiddies Christmas is deeply tied in with pagan rituals. To learn more about this and put your Christian friends (or any other religious fanatic) who call you evil, devil worshipping, pagans to shame, read on ! They’ll despise you even more. But at least you’ll know the truth behind this holiday and hopefully they will too. Contrary to popular deceptions (hold your breath for this) Jesus Christ was NOT born on December 25th . For starters nowhere in the bible does it mention the exact date that Jesus was born. Go ahead and try to find it - I’ll have another Guiness beer as you do. Secondly if you know a little about history you’ll see that in the book of Luke (that’s in the bible towards the back) it is mentioned about the birth of Christ that the shepherds were "abiding in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night." So what the hell does that mean you ask? It means this, if Christ was born in the Winter month of December the shepherds would not have had their flocks out in the fields at night, rather they would secure them in folds against the bitter cold Palestinian night… but since the bible mentions the shepherds being out with their flocks at night when Christ was born tells us that it had to have happened before December, when the nights were much warmer. So now the really fun part !!!! How did the date of December 25th come to be? Prior to the celebration of Christmas on this date, December 25th marked the Winter Solstice, and it was considered to be a very special day in many pagan religions. It was particularly important in the cult of Mithras, a popular deity in the Old Roman Empire, in the Roman world was the Natalis Solis Inviciti , the Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun. This feast, which took place just after the Winter Solstice of the Julian calender, was in honor of the Sun God, Mithras, originally a Persian deity whose cult penetrated the Roman world in the first century B.C. (that’s like a really long time ago) besides the Mithraic influence, other pagan forces were at work. From the 17th of December until the 23rd , Romans celebrated the ancient feast of Saturnalia …. It was commemorative of the Golden Age of Saturn, the god of sowing and husbandry. This was just in Rome! The ancient Germanic and Celtic people celebrated Yule, their celebration of the Winter Solstice at around this time also. Many of our common well known things like the Mistletoe or the holly have it’s origins in this pagan celebration of Yule. For example mistletoe (also known as the golden bough) was considered sacred by both the Celtic Druids and the Norseman it was used to cure many ills and was also the plant of peace in Scandinavian antiquity. Mistletoe was used by the Druid priesthood in a very special ceremony held around this time….five days after the New Moon following winter solstice, to be precise. The Druid priests would cut mistletoe from a holy oak tree with a golden sickle. The branches had to be caught before they touched the ground. The priest then divided the branches into many sprigs and distributed them to the people, who hung them over doorways as a protection against thunder, lightning and other evils. The folklore, and the magical powers of this plant, blossomed over the centuries, a sprig placed in a bay’s cradle would protect the child from fairies. Giving a sprig to the first cow calving after new year would protect the entire herd. So how was Christ linked to this holiday? To put it in a nutshell - many of the Christ based religions would go into other lands and come across pagans and would try to convert these people to Christianity or Catholicism (or similar) - so they would try to substitute their pagan beliefs by encouraging the birth of Christ as a focus, rather than worshiping the Sun god or participate in the Solstice. The Christ based religions would allow the pagans to incorporate some of their pagan customs with this newly created day if that’s what it took to convert the pagans…which is a big NO-NO in the bible to accept outside pagan - heathen beliefs to be mixed with holy worship. Remember what happened to the Israelites (God’s chosen people at that time) coming out of Egypt led by Moses to the promise land? On their way on this long journey they made a golden calf and started bowing down and doing dances to it in worship and God became furious and destroyed all those who participated. Yep, that’s in the bible too! My born-again friend looked at me in a lost look yet still defensive and he said "Well it brings people together and highlights the importance of Christ." So I said "Hey, I’m just quoting your bible, and besides I’m sure Jesus would be thrilled with all this commercialism associated with this so called Christian holiday." I smirked and continued "Didn’t Jesus get pissed off when all those people were selling all those things in the temple and started flipping tables over?" He said "Yes". Bottom line- when a Christian or other bible fanatic starts to put you down for your beliefs remind them that we share the same pagan origins from way back when and have a very merry Winter Solstice! Peace. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 15:33:56 -0800 (PST) From: Jeremy Hodgins Subject: ET: A computer christmas carol! Sung to winter wonderland: > Another "ping", > Are you listenin'? > The puter screen, > Is a glistenin'. > With icons so bright, > They light up the night, > Welcome to the e-mail wonderland! > > Gone away, > Are the hall talks. > Here to stay, > Is the IN-BOX. > Flagged "urgent, please read!", > And "answer with speed!". > Welcome to the e-mail wonderland! > > In the morning e-mails start to add up. > No lunch today cause messages abound. > Just click away and hope the server stays up. > You can't do your job if it goes down. > > 10 P.M., > You're not tired. > The caffeine, > Has got you wired. > The day's not complete, > Till the last delete, > Welcome to the e-mail wonderland! > > In the morning e-mails start to add up, > No lunch today cause messages abound. > Just click away and hope the server stays up. > You can't do your job if it goes down. > > Until you, > Are retired, > The same old grind, > It is required. > You'll face unafraid, > That message parade. > Welcome to the e-mail wonderland! Jeremy. _______________________________________________________ Visit Excite Shopping at http://shopping.excite.com The fastest way to find your Holiday gift this season ------------------------------ End of eda-thoughts-digest V2 #365 **********************************