The Origins of Santa Claus...

I have much catching up to do -- I tend to write in spurts -- or at least, post in spurts. Maybe this is one of those spurts. Anyway, spent the weekend with Jess and her family for Thanksgiving. I really enjoyed it -- I came back to my place on Friday and Saturday during the day when Jess was working, but then picked her up and went back to her house. I could go on and on, but Thanksgiving is already behind us, so I'll focus on the present -- or at least, the near present. Over the weekend, I helped to setup the Dymczynski family tree. Her mother asked me if I wanted to be Santa Claus in December 11th (a Saturday) for a church outreach. I'm thinking about it -- I know I could do it -- I'll probably do it! :) Last time I played Santa was as a senior in high school... I'm a natural. <> That means cover your ears, all ye PG or Family rated Christians out thar... I mean, ya don't wanna fuck with Santa now do ya? Or he just might put you on the naughty list. That wouldn't be good now would it... Now be good my children, or this jolly ol' Saint Nick just might stomp on you with his size 14 boots and 380lb frame... no stuffing of the belly needed for this Santa anyway! Okay, so on with it you are probably saying...

The Origins of Saint Nicholas... like, where did this whole Santa thing come from anyway? I mean, every good conservative Christian boy knows that it's a pagan holiday to help people forget the true meaning of Christmas... I think I raised some eyebrows on the Dymczynski family couch the other night when I said that "Santa" is a pagan non-Christian who was the equivalent to the anti-Christ... well, that isn't totally true, but eliminating Christ from the Christmas season is... well... pagan, is it not? let's investigate...

Did you know that Saint Nicholas was born and lived his life in what is now modern day Turkey? 350 miles northwest of Bethlehem. He died on December 6th either 345AD or 352AD. He supposedly helped out three sisters who wanted to marry but had no dowry by leaving anonymous bags of gold in the middle of the night. The third sister, he climbed onto the roof of the house and dropped a bag of gold down the chimney which landed in a stocking that was hung to dry... hence the present day assocations. The Russian Emperor Vladimir visited Constantinople in the 10th century and liked the legend of the Saint so much, he made him the official patron saint of Russia, and the rest is history... his legacy spread through merchant stories and trade around the world into various forms of Santa depending on the country or region of course...

So where did society go wrong? Well... come on peeps... I mean, look at Easter and the Easter bunny... I mean, there are a lot of pagan symbols in our society -- let's not forget to keep Sunday holy and worship our Sun god on Sunday... or the Moon on Monday... or Saturn on Saturday... When I hear the argument that we should keep Sunday holy I beg to ask the question -- who's to say that Sunday is the Sabbath or that it's definately and unequivically the SEVENTH DAY on which God rested from creation. People that try to live by the letter of the law miss the point; one of the reasons Christ came down from Heaven for in the first place... to free us from that law so we could live in true freedom with Him.

The Sunday argument came up actually when my Christian softball team (part of the Frontline Softball Ministry) withdrew from the final tournament in which we tried so hard to qualify and make during the season because it was on a "Sunday" and "we should keep it holy" no less... Since when was playing softball unholy?? Like, what the fuck? Yeah, I said it. I mean, sure, I guess I could write WTF... but then wouldn't you all just be saying "what . . . the . . . fuck" in your head silently anyways? :) I thought I would save you a few brain waves on the symbolic translation of those letters. What a friend we have in JesusOfCanada... I'll get to that in a sec.

I was too busy .... or was it lazy? ... to bother contesting the Sunday argument. I just chose to respond with disinterest -- skipped all the dinners and get togethers with the other people on the team and in the ministry. It just left with me, as Dave would call it, a pretty big mouthful from a shit sandwich.

Anyway, back to the JesusOfCanada reference -- that's my Halo 2 screenname... so if you play Halo 2, just punch me in there and send me a voice message greeting. See ya (or is it shoot ya with a rocket launcher up your pie hole later!)

Trip to Canada and Tom Ridge

So I was driving back from Canada with my girlfriend Jess this afternoon (met the parents, friends and walked around Toronto -- had a blast!) As we drove through Breezewood, PA -- I wanted to stop for gas and an MTO at a Pennsylvania classic -- Sheetz...

So I fill up with gas, we go in and order a couple MTO's and then as I'm walking towards the counter I walk by Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge... He walks by and starts making himself a large coffee... I tell Jess and then notice 2-3 secret service agents and Tom Ridge's wife, who walks into Sheetz.

I asked Jess if she had a camera and she said she had it in her purse! So as Tom Ridge comes up, I say "Governor Ridge!" and put out my hand and we start talking... We probably spoke for a couple minutes -- I got a few pictures with him (soon to be developed and uploaded) and then we talked about what was up -- I mentioned that I was heading back to DC and he asked me where I lived -- I said I lived in Falls Church with a couple roommates. He said he was heading back to DC after visiting his daughter going to college in Pittsburgh. I told him I graduated from Geneva College, and he said "really! that's in Beaver Falls right? That used to be in my congressional district... when did you graduate?" I told him '99 and that I moved to DC in 2001... then he asked me what I did... I told him I worked for Stratfor... "Have you heard of it?" -- He replied "no, what do they do?" My response: "geopolitical intelligence" I had to repeat myself... so he says -- "did you guys get the election right?" and I said -- "as a matter of fact, we did..." Then we talked a bit about the election results and how pleased we both were and that looking at a county-by-county map of the US, it was basically almost ALL red, with a few blue dots for metro areas... we were chuckling about how the Dems totally missed what America wanted... Then I said "how 'bout Thume??" and we chuckled some more about Daschle losing to Thume and how the final 10 days saw Thume pull a massive team together to campaign... Ridge was using terms like "full court press" and "blockin and tacklin" for Thume's campaign team -- definately a western Pennsylvania native talkin football analogies... :) I mentioned that my roommate had taken vacation time to fly out to work for Thume's campaign during the final week...

Anyway, I left the conversation with "great to meet you, by the way my name is Jeremy Wilcox" and I shook his hand one more time... Then on the way out to the car, Jess said she had my business card, so I went back but Ridge was in the restroom -- I asked his secret service agent to give the card to Ridge and that I worked for an intelligence company that offered something he would find useful and the agent said he would make sure he got it...

So that was pretty cool... ;)