The First Amendment, Null & Void...Because Mom Says So

As you may have noticed, it's the end of the year. And everyone who's anyone who writes for a blog or a webzine or a newspaper is busy making lists of the "Best Of" and the "Worst Of" and the Most Outrageous Of" for 2008. I normally shy away from jumping on the bandwagon, but I love lists. So I decided to make my own. It's not a "best of" or "worst of". No, I decided the greatest way to wrap up another year was simply to make a list of...

"Topics Banned From the Eben Family's 2008 Christmas Dinner Table"

I should explain that this list is one that is made by my mother, and is formed comprehensively. As the meal, and lively conversation, takes place, my mother continues to add to the list as necessary, and as she sees fit. Basically any subjects that would incite any kind of conflict whatsoever are added to the list. There were only four forbidden topics this year, which either indicates that my siblings and I have become more civil, less intelligent, abnormally non-confrontational, or altogether nonverbal. I'm hoping it's the first. Anyway, here's the list:

#1) Jesus (specifically, how to best share his love with rock climbers)
#2) Politics (specifically, the impending Obama presidency)
#3) Music (specifically, Sufjan Stevens and his musical genius or lack-there-of)
and...
#4) High Fructose Corn Syrup (I'm not kidding)

There you have it. I, of course, will probably find it necessary to write more about the beginning of the new year, because I'm sentimental like that, and because I've taken a few days off and have a little more time than normal to write. So, stay tuned.

Sheep Poop and Sinners

I love NPR. I've been an avid listener since high school. By "love", I don't simply mean that it is my primary news source. I mean "love" as in I actually look forward to Science Friday, and Talk of the Nation, and I feel like Terry Gross and I are (or at least could be) good friends. I adore her. Weird. I know. But it's like a work of art to me: form and function all rolled into one little radio station.

Anyhow, while trying to counter the influence of high school drama on my life (it is embarrassingly easy to get sucked into when you are around teenagers all the time - like a cultural vacuum) I was reading up on a few news stories on www.npr.org this morning. I ran across this feature article: Selling the Bawdy Side of Christmas. It's a fairly average little commentary about the ever-increasing secularization of Christmas. Nothing, really, that I didn't already know. What I did really enjoy, however were the following included quotes (italics added by me) by Amy Laura Hall, a professor of theological ethics at Duke University (regarding the holiday juxtaposition of sacred and secular that has so many religious folk in a tizzy these days) :

"Christmas was, from the beginning, both holy and horrible, sacred and scary. There isn't an easy way to make it all hygienic, because the incarnation mixes God up with sheep poop and sinners." In the end, she says, it's somewhat fitting that Christmas has become an admixture of naughtiness and niceness. The contemplation of the humanity of the holiday — as well as the holiness — may make it more real than ever. As Hall puts it, "We doubt, with Thomas the disciple, that a Jesus all spiffed up and safe is real."

Kudos to Miss Hall. This is the most spiritually true and profound thing I have heard all week.