a look back at Christmas, a look ahead at 2024
the video above is also embedded in a post by Paul Kingsnorth in which he said:Our crumbling culture can be so hard to navigate. Religion can be hard to navigate too. But maybe Christmas can help us understand what it is, and what part of us it services. Religion is not, as atheists often assume and I once assumed too, a set of beliefs to be adhered to, or arguments to be made and defended. It is an experience to be immersed in. The orthopraxy reveals the orthodoxy. … It is hard, if not impossible to explain, and yet it is the simplest thing in the world. We have always done it. We always will.*
Kingsnorth starts his post with with this:
Sometimes I think I’ve been lied to my whole life.
Everyone, everywhere, lives by a story. This story is handed to us by the culture we grow up in, the family that raises us, and the worldview we construct for ourselves as we grow. The story will change over time, and adapt to circumstances. When you’re young, you tend to imagine that you have bravely pioneered your own story. After all, the whole world revolves around you. As you age, though, you begin to see that much of what you believe is in fact a product of the time and place you were young in.*
as for a look ahead at 2024, subscribers to the free newsletter from george atherton can look forward to cross-posts as before – but maybe fewer of them – and most of them now of posts on fewer wurdz that say what others say, wherever they may say it
2023-12-28 / notes
*a link; see the about page for how posts – and copies on fw – use links
“It is hard, if not impossible to explain, …” / it may be beyond reason (!g)
stories matter: “all we know is stories – some are helpful, …” (!gi) / choose a helpful one*
wherever they may say it / in other words, not just elsewhere on Substack
further notes are not appended to posts on fewer wurdz