My Santa Claus Holy Cards Arrived!
To have conceived of Santa Claus holy cards is insane enough, but to actually design them and have them printed? My brain should be studied.
I am excited anyway. Santa is part of my pantheon, so I wanted a holy card for him. St. Nick is not just for the holidays! The card has a painting I made of St Nicholas, and a prayer I wrote that does not focus on holiday wishes.
I must attribute my girlfriend Kathi, who told me years ago that she prays to Santa all year long. She may have even said she keeps an altar to him. That’s all it took to turn me into a Santa Claus worshiper. Not that Kathi went on about a Santa theology or anything. But her insightful decision to interact with Claus all year long is really something, implying a theology in itself. I mean, if this is the guy that brings the goodies, any good heathen worth their salt is going to build Him an altar!
It is important to attribute Kathi for her few words to me. Those who embody spiritual values (yes, I consider praying to Santa implying a spiritual value. Also, I mention embodiment not to imply that they perfectly live their beliefs, but rather to say they often focus more on practice than on theory) are sometimes perceived as if they do not have the fine minds or emotional depth needed to understand complex theology, the intricacies of spiritual theory, or a profound cosmology. In other words, (I’ll make up a few names, before pronouns get confusing) when George extrapolates a great number of intellectual concepts from Tiffany’s straight-ahead, unadorned remarks or from one of her simple practice, George may not realize that Tiffany is well aware of her practices’ implications, and simply chooses not to speak of them.
Tiffany is in keeping with Buddha’s sense of spiritual living: He would not talk about theory or cosmology with his students, because he felt there wasn’t time to do that and still do all the practices needed. I also find that theoretical discourse is a great way to convince oneself that one is addressing the spiritual life, and thus is able to avoid actually living the spiritual life. The discourse can emotionally ground one, so one feels one has done what is needed, but one is not grounded into anything that will carry you through the day.
It is important to attribute people who inspire our ideas. Those are true teachers – – people whose actions lead us to right thinking.
We are at almost at the opposite end of the calendar year from Yule. My Santa holy cards arriving from the printer right now says, “All the year is for joy to the world and peace on earth.”
Buy any item in my Etsy shop before June 16, 2011 and get a free Santa Claus holy card.
For more about my spirituality and Santa, check out Santa Is in My Pantheon. Also What Do Elves Do on Their Day Off? (scroll down. Santa stuff is toward the end, right before people’s comments)
