German Christmas Market (Shanghai, China)

In December I went to a German Christmas market here in Shanghai, called Christkindlmarkt. Here are my photos~

You can view a larger version of this image here

Blogaround

The last blog post of the year~ Happy new year everyone!

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. My favorite Christmas song: Casting Crowns - I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day Live 

2. The NIMBY Christmas cinematic universe (December 23) "Particularly frustrating is the argument that economic growth, development, and newcomers — the very things that ailing small towns desperately need — are actually the root of their problems."

3. Firewood Banks Aren’t Inspiring. They’re a Sign of Collapse. (December 9, via) "You don’t start a wood bank in a country with functioning institutions. You start one when heating assistance programs can’t keep up, when the grid flickers every time the wind shifts, when propane and heating oil costs swing so hard that families can’t budget more than a week out. You start a wood bank when seniors stop turning on their heat because they’re scared of the bill. You also start one when the country pretends energy insecurity doesn’t exist because acknowledging it would mean admitting that entire regions were left behind on purpose."

4. Collections: Coinage and the Tyranny of Fantasy ‘Gold’ (January 3, 2025, via) "So a denarius or a drachma isn’t a unit so big that no normal person would ever use it, but it is a big enough unit that one is hardly going to use it casually"

5. Israel says it will bar aid groups, including Doctors Without Borders, from Gaza (December 30)

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Is It Too Late? (December 9, via) "The full-on hijacking of the 14th Amendment has not been challenged with commensurate concerted outrage and political clarity. That is because far too many white Americans associate the 14th Amendment’s guarantees of birthright citizenship and equality, as provisions that only protect Black people, migrants, Latino people, and other marginalized groups, rather than as core democracy infrastructure of our Constitution."

2. What We Can Learn from the Right’s Attack On “Toxic Empathy” (December 11, via) "But by trying to get inside Chauvin’s head and heart, by insisting that he should be the focal point of identification, Stuckey can move away from what actually happened, and can instead present herself as the truly thoughtful and empathetic voice, feeling along with the right, white, and supposedly Godly person."

3. The return of the r-word (December 23) "But it turns out that banishing the slur from public discourse was, in fact, important. Because now it’s back and it turns out that it does matter when subtext becomes actual text, when terrible people enable open hatred and bigotry, encouraging others to emulate them, degrading us all."

4. Conservatives Want the Antebellum Constitution Back (December 21) "What this means in practice is that if you are not white, you cannot go certain places without the risk of being kidnapped by federal agents. That is not “common sense”; it is the nullification of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal rights under the law."

Christmas Stockings in Chinese

Christmas stocking for sale on a Chinese site. Image source.

How do we say "Christmas stocking" in Chinese?

Well, it's 圣诞袜子 [shèng dàn wà zǐ]. 圣诞 [shèng dàn] means "Christmas", like when you're using "Christmas" as an adjective to talk about Christmas cookies, Christmas trees, etc- but when you're talking about Christmas the holiday, as in "Today is Christmas", it would be 圣诞节 [shèng dàn jié], because 节 [jié] means "holiday." And 袜子 [wà zǐ] means sock.

Wait, 袜子 [wà zǐ] means sock? Like any normal sock is 袜子 [wà zǐ]? Yes, any normal sock is 袜子 [wà zǐ]. Every day when you wear socks, they are 袜子 [wà zǐ]. The Chinese word for Christmas stocking is Christmas sock.

Something about this feels a little wrong, to me. When we talk about "stockings" in English, the feel of it is like... an old-fashioned sock. An old-timey word for "sock." Like the origins of this tradition are that long ago, people really did hang up actual socks for Christmas, but now we use a dedicated product specifically made to be a Christmas stocking, which would not work as an actual sock you can wear on your actual foot. 

All of that is wrapped up in the English word "stocking," and the Chinese 圣诞袜子 [shèng dàn wà zǐ] doesn't have any of the same feel.

There's no tradition about Christmas stockings in China. I think a lot of Chinese people have seen them used in Christmas decorations, so they vaguely know that Christmas stockings are a thing that exists, but they don't know any details beyond that.

This is how translation always is. You take a word in one language and you want to translate it to a second language, but the second language doesn't have a word with the exact same feel. And I just asked me husband (who is Chinese) about this, and he said "we don't care" about the fact that "stocking" sounds more old-fashioned and not like an actual sock, because in China they don't have this tradition. (And perhaps there *is* a Chinese word that feels more old-fashioned and is related to socks- though I don't know one myself- and one might argue that it is a better translation for "stocking", except that you won't get anywhere making that argument, because Chinese people are already using the translation 圣诞袜子 [shèng dàn wà zǐ].)

Translation is like that.

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Related:

Chinese Jokes Make Me Think About God

"Ayi" vs "Aunt"

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Merry Christmas! Here's the song "Adoration" by the Newsboys.

2. Australia’s Social Media Ban is a Win for Gambling Companies (December 21)

3. Victory in New Zealand, For Now—Injunction Brings Puberty Blocker Ban to a Screeching Halt (December 18)

4. Funny Numbers (December 22) From xkcd.

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Families Bring Legal Challenge Against Yale, CCMC For Capitulating To Trump On Trans Youth Care (December 18) "Critically, no law in the United States currently bans gender-affirming care for transgender youth, meaning the hospitals cannot credibly claim federal preemption of state law. Instead, the cessation of care appears to be driven solely by fear of retaliation from the Trump administration. This is particularly significant in Connecticut, which—like several other states where hospitals have dropped care—has strong statutory protections for transgender people, raising the possibility that these decisions violate state civil rights law, a question GLAD is now seeking to resolve."

I have a lot of links from Erin in the Morning: 

Nationwide Trans Youth Care Ban Incoming As Trump Admin Announces "Nuclear Option" Federal Rule (December 19) "These draft rules comprise a dangerous and unconstitutional attempt to undermine the longstanding right of states to ensure the health and well-being of their residents, the right of parents and caregivers to support and love trans and nonbinary young people, and the guidance of doctors and medical organizations on the well-established standard of care."

ACTION ITEM: You can submit a public comment here, Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Hospital Condition of Participation: Prohibiting Sex-Rejecting Procedures for Children. The comment period ends February 17, 2026.

Trans Youth Emergency Project Offers Families Guidance To Help Keep Getting Care After New Trump Anti-Trans Rule (December 21) "Adam Polaski explained, 'At every turn, we have been able to pivot and scale up and show people the reason that this is important. Folks have stepped up with their dollars, and also folks have requested support and spread the word. So right now, I don’t want folks to feel like they shouldn’t reach out because they ‘don’t really need it’ or someone else ‘needs it more than them.’ Everyone needs the support right now, and it’s ok. We have the capacity to take it on.'"

You can donate here: Trans Youth Emergency Project

ACLU Pledges To Challenge Trump Admin In Court Over National Trans Youth Care Ban Rule (December 23) 

2. Let's all watch the CECOT 60-Minutes segment that Bari Weiss doesn't want us to watch. 

[content note: torture]

60 Minus (December 22) "If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a “kill switch” for any reporting they find inconvenient."

Links where you can watch it: here, here, here

3. The year Trump broke the federal government (December 21, via) This is very long, and hard to read. I haven't read the whole thing. It's about the huge numbers of government workers who have been fired this year.

4. The Horns and Whistles Work (December 19, via) "Border Patrol might spend hours waiting to detain an immigrant, only to be thwarted by a united neighborhood effort."

5. Univ. of Oklahoma punishes instructor for failing Christian student who didn't do the assignment (December 23) "The only person who behaved with integrity in this saga was the graduate instructor who gave Fulnecky detailed, thoughtful feedback. And that’s the only person who was punished."

6. ICE officer accused of excessive force, then sent back to work despite active probe (December 24) "By the following Monday, Mojica was back on the job, without any further explanation from the agency."

7. Biden stopped the executions of 37 men. Trump's DOJ wants to punish them (December 23) "'These are new punishments,' said Maher. 'This is an additional punishment for these men who have already been sentenced.'"

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Why people like your quick bullshit takes better than your high-effort posts (November 29, via) "but the attention of the internet is best modeled as a random swarm of locusts that will occasionally land on your ripe fields based on its inscrutable whims."

Oh yeah this has happened to me. The posts that get the most views aren't the ones I really really care about and spend a lot of time on. Hey if you really want to make my day, you can leave an appreciative comment on any of my very long blog posts about the bible.

2. Apples (December 12) From xkcd.

3. Journal Club: The Quoiromantic Manifesto (December 17) "'Quoiromantic' was especially a response to asexual discourses where romantic orientation is so common that people are expected to have it as a slot in their identity. Quoiromanticism expresses unwillingness to participate in this framework."

4. I usually do a "Christmas music roundup" post in December, but it turns out I just like all the same songs every year. So instead of doing a whole post, I'll just share them one by one here and there.

Emmanuel (Michael W Smith & Amy Grant- w/lyrics)

5. OpenAI says dead teen violated TOS when he used ChatGPT to plan suicide (November 27, via) [content note: suicide]

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. ‘Good will to all’ rejected as ‘political’ and ‘divisive’ (December 9) "'Peace on earth, good will to all' is the same thing Christians have been reciting every year at Christmastime for centuries, but those Christians can’t say it this year without being — correctly — perceived as 'political' and 'anti-Trump' and 'anti-ICE' and 'anti-MAGA,' because 'peace and good will to all' is the opposite of everything that Trump and ICE and MAGA stand for."

Also from the Slacktivist: The end of 20th-century white evangelicalism (December 15) "I remember what it feels like to identify as an evangelical because loving Jesus and loving the Bible was the most important thing to me only to be told, constantly, that this did not matter at all — to constantly have the gatekeepers of evangelicalism reminding me that loving Jesus and loving the Bible wasn’t nearly as important as voting Republican no matter what. And then seeing 'no matter what' ratcheted into something ever more extreme."

This is so real. I'm also one of those evangelicals who followed Jesus right out of the church.

2. Trump Finds Way To Be Bigger Piece Of Sh*t Than Ever, Re: Rob Reiner (December 16) This is really shocking and horrific, what he posted on social media.

3. Her Christmas lights were going up. Then Border Patrol showed up (December 13) "'It looks completely ridiculous,' she said. But she decided to leave it that way 'as a symbol of what happens when ICE and Border Patrol get involved in your world. Things don't go as planned. And a lot of work doesn't get done.'"

4. DOJ releases Epstein files and the first batch is short on new information (December 19) 

5. A radio station in Amsterdam is a lifeline for Sudan. After USAID cuts, it's faltering (December 21) "From Amsterdam, the journalists at Radio Dabanga try to shed some light on the dire situation. They report on where fighting has erupted, on disease outbreaks in refugee camps, and the aftermath of recent atrocities, such as those in the Sudanese city of el-Fasher."

6. Trump's push to end transgender care for young people opposed by pediatricians (December 19) "Goepferd, who is the founder of Children's Minnesota Gender Health Program, says that for the medical community, nothing has changed about the evidence supporting gender-affirming care that could justify the government's actions."

Ariana Grande is advancing the cultural mythology around Santa Claus

Ariana Grande. Image source.

"Santa Tell Me" is a 2014 song by Ariana Grande. The chorus goes like this:

Santa, tell me if you're really there

Don't make me fall in love again if he won't be here

Next year

Santa, tell me if he really cares

'Cause I can't give it all away if he won't be here

Next year

She is interested in a boy, but doesn't want to fall in love with him if the relationship isn't going to last. So she's asking Santa if she will still be with this guy in 1 year, and also if this guy really cares about her.

She's asking Santa? Since when do people ask Santa for dating advice??? Since when is Santa believed to have the ability to see the future? Since when does Santa read people's minds and feelings?

Like, okay, sure, according to the standard tropes about Santa, he has a "naughty list" and "nice list." I suppose Santa could look this guy up and see which list he's on, but I don't think Santa's naughty/nice binary categorization system is really going to give Ariana Grande the information she needs. Just because this guy is nice enough to deserve a Christmas present doesn't really tell you if he's boyfriend material. This song seems to be implying some kind of knowledge or ability on Santa's part that goes beyond "he's gonna find out who's naughty or nice."

Also, "don't make me fall in love again"- is she saying Santa has the power to manipulate her emotions to stop her from falling in love if the relationship isn't going to last? What? Since when is that something that Santa can do? Or, maybe we should just read this as, he should give her the information she is asking for, and then she will be able to keep *herself* from falling in love.

This song has bothered me for so long because these are just *not* things that Santa is typically regarded as being able to do. This is not the role that people expect Santa to play. He just judges who's "naughty or nice" and gives gifts. That's all. He doesn't give relationship advice, what on earth, who has ever asked Santa of all people for relationship advice? He doesn't predict the future, my goodness. (This seems like more the sort of thing that people would ask God. Not Santa.)

But actually, this is how the Santa mythology has always worked. Pop culture is always adding to it, through songs, movies, Coca-Cola ads, adding to the body of knowledge that people "know" about who Santa is. It changes and develops, and we should read "Santa Tell Me" as an attempt to develop the cultural ideas about Santa in this direction. If it catches on, then there will be more songs and movies made, which portray Santa as an all-knowing relationship-advice-giver, and people will think it's just self-evidently obvious that that's who Santa is, just like it's obvious that he lives at the North Pole and gives gifts to children and has "naughty" and "nice" lists.

Well, the song is from 2014 and this new interpretation of Santa doesn't seem to have caught on. But I will always be on the lookout for anyone else claiming that Santa knows the future and has insights about whether your boyfriend really cares about you.

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Related:

I can't stop thinking about Monsters University

Team Rocket Should Get Real Jobs

Blogaround

Links not related to that felon:

1. The Struggles and Strengths of China’s Bereaved Youths (April 24) "The death of a parent violently shakes a bereaved young adult’s understanding of life. To integrate this disruption into their life narratives, they are forced to revise their conception of what life means."

2. Air China A350 Safety Video (2022) You know how nowadays, every airline does their safety spiel in the form of a cutesy little video? Well last time I was on an Air China flight, I got such a kick out of this, it's so cute and so over-the-top Chinese, I simply must share it.

3. Lord Of The Dance Hymn (Contemporary Worship Song) (2020) One of my favorite songs about Jesus.

And this is also one of my favorite songs about Jesus: michael card--God's own fool 

While we're on this topic, here's this one too: Rich Mullins - Sometimes by Step 

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Links related to that felon:

As always, if you're too stressed out about everything going on, find 1 tangible thing to do. Protest, donate money, get connected with local groups that support immigrants. We need everyone to do at least 1 little thing that actually makes a difference. Being stressed out about the news all the time does *not* count.

1. World War T is exhausting (April 24) "Retailers in the first months of 2025 are trying to do now what they would have done in the first months of 2020 if they had known that a pandemic was coming ahead of time."

And: Has Trump cancelled Christmas? China's decorations makers report no US orders (April 10) "'So far this year, none of my American customers have placed any orders,' said Qun Ying, who runs an artificial Christmas tree factory in the eastern city of Jinhua."

2. Trump administration reverses abrupt terminations of foreign students’ US visa registrations (April 25) This is good news- but also, it sounds like ICE is still planning to go after international students.

3. Trump Has Now Deported Multiple U.S. Citizen Children With Cancer (April 26) "One of the children is a four-year-old suffering from a rare form of metastatic cancer and was deported out of the country without medication or consultation with their treating physicians — despite ICE being notified in advance of the child’s medical needs. The civil rights organization says that the mother of the two-year-old is pregnant, and was deported without ensuring any continuity of prenatal care or proper medical care."

4. U.S. judge says 2-year-old apparently deported to Honduras 'with no meaningful process' (April 26) "'The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her,' Doughty wrote. 'But the Court doesn't know that.'"

5. PhD Timeline (April 25)

6. The difference between the police and the secret police (April 28) "You cannot watch that video without clearly and obviously understanding that Öztürk is a victim and that she is being victimized by … well, by the Bad Guys in this story."

7. Protesters chant after arrest of judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities (April 27) "'The judiciary acts as a check to unchecked executive power. And functioning democracies do not lock up judges,' Democratic state Rep. Ryan Clancy told the crowd before it marched around the area."

Blogaround

1. Sarah McBride Wasn’t Looking for a Fight on Trans Rights (December 1, via) "I always knew that there would be some members of the Republican caucus who would seek to use my service representing the greatest state in the Union in Congress as an opportunity for them to distract from the fact that they have absolutely no real policy solutions for the issues that actually plague this country. And, in some cases, to grab headlines themselves. I was not surprised that there was an effort to politicize an issue that no one truly cares about—what bathroom I use."

2. Why Queen Vashti Should Be Considered a Hero (December 11) "She was one of the first recorded instances of a woman saying, 'I refuse to be treated like a sex object, because that is not what I am.'"

3. Judge rejects sale of Alex Jones’ Infowars to The Onion in dispute over bankruptcy auction (December 11) I really don't understand any of this. 

Okay let's start with this: Alex Jones spread the conspiracy theory that kids were not really murdered at Sandy Hook and they were acting. Why? Why? Why would anyone say such a thing? It's hard to imagine a worse way to respond to a mass shooting, my god. What is the motive here? I guess I always assumed it's because this type of liar always says whatever wild thing will get their followers riled up, without any consideration of whether it's true- but this is unusual in that he's defaming very specific people rather than just, ya know, general scaremongering and racist urban legends that are typical of that genre. There are loads of liars out there spreading conspiracy theories along those lines, and you can't really hold them accountable because what they say is vague enough you can't actually point to any specific harm they are doing in a literal legal sense. Why on earth didn't Jones just stick to that kind of hateful nonsense? Why did he start conspiracy theories about very specific people, who really do exist and can easily prove that he's lying and directly harming them? Is he just so used to saying whatever ridiculous thing passes through his mind, without caring one bit about whether it's true, that he didn't realize this lie could actually get him in trouble? (And also how awful it is, just on a basic-human-decency level?)

Anyway, then a judge ordered that Jones owed the families of Sandy Hook victims $1.5 billion, and he will have to sell all his stuff to pay them. Good. He deserves to lose everything. Some people lost their children, and then Jones was cruel to them in the worst way, saying their children weren't even real, my god, I can't even imagine what would make someone say something like that.

And then Infowars was auctioned and the Onion came to buy it, and I also didn't really follow what was going on there, but it seems good because the Onion has the support of the Sandy Hook families, and plans to, ya know, not continue to run Infowars as a hateful conspiracy theory machine.

And then a judge said actually that auction was invalid and the Onion can't buy it- why not? What's the issue? I've seen people on the internet saying this judge is on Jones's side and that's why he ruled this way, but I can't get my head around that either- I truly can't fathom anyone being on Jones's side here. (I guess Infowars has a lot of followers- yeah I don't understand that either...) I can't believe that that's the reason this judge ruled this way, because why on earth would anyone want to support Alex Jones here? Surely there was some different reason? Some legal technicality? And then the lawyers will just get that cleared up and continue the process and yes Jones will lose everything, like he should, right?

I've been feeling this way about a lot of news stories I read lately, actually. I read what happened, and then I read some people on the internet talking about why it happened and what the motives are, and I mean, it's just speculation by random people on the internet- you can't rely on that. I have many questions and not really any good way to get to the bottom of what's going on. (This is something I hope to blog about more.)

4. Metal musicians perform "O Holy Night" (2023, via) Wow this is INCREDIBLE.

Usually in December I post a roundup of my favorite Christmas songs. I'm not doing that this year- please refer to this 2023 post because I still like the same songs: Christmas Music Round-up.

Blogaround

1. It’s Year-end Party Season For Chinese Companies — Do Workers Like Them? (January 15) Ha. Yeah, so this is a thing in China. Every company has a big party for Chinese New Year. Lots of fancy food, dance performances, "lucky draw" prizes, managers giving speeches about how great the company is, going around to everyone else's table to drink with them, it drags on and on for hours...

I remember at my first job in China, another international employee astutely asked, "Why do parties always need to have performances?" Why indeed.

At my current job, we have annual parties which are a lot more casual than that, and I really like that. Just rent a party room and hang out and eat, some people can play mah jong or do karaoke if they want, and maybe win "lucky draw" prizes, and that's it.

Also from Sixth Tone: For China’s Plus-Size Women, Going Out Is a Daily Struggle (January 19)

2. There’s A Version of A Christmas Carol Where Scrooge is an Attempted Rapist (December 27) "The tremendous irony is that this adaptation adds so much darkness and evil to the Scrooge story but does not add more meaning. A worse Scrooge does not produce greater redemption – it produces less."

Also from Dr. Laura Robinson: How Much Exodus is Too Much Exodus? The Prince of Egypt and The Ten Commandments (December 31) It's an analysis which compares the movies "The Prince of Egypt" and "The Ten Commandments." Oh I am so here for this.

3. Wheaton College restricts employees’ ability to state preferred pronouns (January 10, via) This is just ridiculous. What if your name is Alex or Sam or something? Also, using a trans person's correct name and pronouns is BARE MINIMUM level of human decency.

4. Michigan’s new anti-poverty effort: $7,500 for Flint moms, no strings attached (August 1) "Beginning in January, Flint moms will receive up to $7,500 to help boost their infant’s footing in the first year of life — a one-time $1,500 payment in mid-pregnancy, followed by $500 per month for the first year of a child’s life." Great news!

5. China to grant Ireland unilateral visa-free treatment (January 17) and Swiss travellers to be allowed to enter China visa-free (January 16)

I tried to find a source from a more well-known western news outlet, but I only found this one from Bloomberg and it's paywalled: China Has Scrapped Visa Requirements for 11 Nations in Past Year (January 18)

Very interesting! China is very intentionally trying to improve relations with other countries, and encourage tourism. This is good news, from my perspective as an immigrant in China, but also I'm American so none of these new policies actually apply to me directly.

6. A few articles on Biden not taking a stand against genocide in Gaza:

Why is Biden engaging in disinformation on Gaza? (January 10) [content note: infant death]

Joe Biden Wants You To Believe He Is Opposed To Genocide In Gaza (January 17) "But his statement, which emphasized the Israeli deaths on October 7 and the hostages who remain in Hamas’s custody, made no mention of the 10,000 dead Palestinian children and what they never should have gone through."

US Democrats push Biden administration over civilian toll in Israel's Gaza campaign (January 20)

7. Enforcing the Law to Disqualify a Violent Insurrectionist Is Good, Actually (January 16) "Even if you wish really hard, Clarence Thomas is not going to recuse himself from this case; Donald Trump is not going to stop claiming everything is rigged because the liberal justices joined an unanimous opinion; and Senate Democrats are not going to betray every single warning they’ve raised about Trump being a threat to democracy for the past eight years to give him a special exemption from the Constitution’s insurrection ban. Donald Trump exists in the real world, not a law school exam hypothetical, and strategies for opposing him need to be rooted in reality."

Also on that topic: Catching up on Donald Trump (January 8) "But whether or not the Constitution bans him from holding office again is a question of law, not politics. The whole point of including things in the Constitution is to take them out of politics. If constitutional provisions are subject to politics, then all the rights the Constitution supposedly gives us are up for grabs. Your right to do any particular thing will depend not on the Constitution, but on whether your action is politically popular."

8. In Juneau, Alaska, a carbon offset project that’s actually working (January 4) "In an effort to mitigate a portion of that CO2, some of those going whale watching or visiting the glacier are asked to pay a few dollars to counter their emissions. The money goes to the Alaska Carbon Reduction Fund, but instead of buying credits from some distant (and questionable) offset project, the nonprofit spends that cash installing heat pumps, targeting residents like Roberts who rely upon oil heating systems."

"The Giving Manger" Recap

Stock photo of a Chinese family eating dinner. Image source.

So at the beginning of December I wrote that I was going to do this Christmas activity with my son, called "The Giving Manger," where you can write down the good things you did to help people, and those strips of paper are the straw in the manger for Baby Jesus. Here's a follow-up post about how it went.

Basically it went really well! In my blog post at the start of this, I said I wasn't sure about it because I don't like the idea of "gamifying morality", but it didn't turn out that way. Discussing the things my son did to help people, writing them down, and telling him he did a good job- these are not enough of a "reward" to incentivize him to "game the system." So that was good.

It wasn't about doing good things for artificial reasons. It was about spending time talking to him about what he had done each day, and helping him to identify which things he did which were good things that helped people. He already does nice things because he's a sweetheart. This activity was helpful because it made him more aware of those things, and also helped me pay more attention to them.

One nice thing that he does a lot is serving food to us at dinner. This is sort of a Chinese-culture thing- during a meal, people will randomly put food in your bowl. It really disturbed me when I first came to China, because I don't want people all up in my space without asking first, and I don't like when I feel like people are pressuring me to eat- but Chinese people do it to be nice, and I learned that I can just tell them "oh I already have enough, thanks" and that's fine. Anyway, my son has started doing this- like randomly scooping food into my bowl. Very cute! Though sometimes I have to tell him not to do it, if it's something I don't want to eat.

So, anyway, overall, both of us enjoyed doing "The Giving Manger," and it was basically a way of noticing the good things that we already do.

Christmas Music Round-up

Heyyy it's that time of year, when I make a post with a bunch of my favorite Christmas songs.

Joy To The World - Whitney Houston

 

"The Giving Manger" (gonna try this out with my kid)

Book cover for "The Giving Manger" by Allison Hottinger and Emily King. Image source.

So I recently bought the book The Giving Manger [affiliate link] for my son. (That link is for the set that includes the book and a small manger, but I bought just the book- don't have an Amazon link for that though.) This is an activity you can do with kids during the Christmas season, to teach them to help other people.

Basically, the book is about a family where the dad made a little wooden manger and said that throughout the month of December, any time they help people, they add a piece of straw to the manger, to get ready for baby Jesus. Because Jesus said, in the parable of the sheep and the goats, "whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me"- which means that helping other people is helping Jesus. (And, full disclosure, the idea that "helping other people is helping Jesus" is one of the most important Christian beliefs to me. Like I am SO HERE for this.)

I first heard about this activity from commenter 'Becca a year ago, and then I happened to come across this book, so yeah I'm gonna go ahead and try this with my son. He's preschool-age. We'll see what he thinks of it.

My initial thought, upon hearing about this activity, was that I don't really like the idea of... gamifying morality? Like I don't necessarily think it's good to conceptualize "doing the right thing" as ... counting up individual actions that you took? It should be more about your overall attitude towards other people. Having empathy and compassion because those are inherently good things. Helping other people because you believe that a world where people receive help for their problems is better than one where they don't. That sort of thing. Not like, doing "enough" good things to reach some personal "goal."

(Related to that: Is Christianity about how you as a individual can escape hell? Or is it about participating in building the kingdom of heaven on earth? Is the parable of the sheep and the goats meant to teach us how to get to heaven, or to teach us that we should help people who are in need? If something bad happens, but nobody can claim it's your fault, are you fine with that or does it still matter to you? Is sin bad because it separates the sinner from God, or because there is a victim who is hurt by it? Is it more important to not be called a racist, or to actually change society so that people do not suffer from the effects of racism? Even the idea of "helping other people is helping Jesus" can be seen as "gamifying morality"- shouldn't you help people simply because it's the right thing to do? [I have seen atheists criticizing Christians for that reason, but I disagree with the atheists there.])

But anyway, even though I don't think that counting up good deeds is a healthy mature adult way to view morality, I guess for children you have to start there. My son doesn't really have the concept of having compassion for people in a general abstract sense. So I guess to teach little kids about morality, you have to start out with very concrete actions they can do, and there has to be an obvious and immediate "payoff" to them.

So we'll try this out and see how it goes. Merry Christmas everybody~

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Follow-up post: "The Giving Manger" Recap

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Related:

Square Root's Advent Calendar 

Not Sure I Want My Kid Reading the Bible

Blogaround

1. Was Jesus Homeless? Yes, No, and Kind Of (December 2) "When I worked as a housing case manager, part of my job was to determine if clients were literally homeless, according to the HUD definition."

Also from the same blog: “I Think I Might Not Die Now” (December 22) "I am blessed to work for an organization that believes in Housing First.  What that means is, once a person’s housing is taken care of, suddenly their medical needs and expenses go down."

2. Can the Star of Bethlehem be scientifically verified? (November 28) Part 1 of a blog series critiquing the video "The Star of Bethlehem," a documentary providing a scientific explanation for the star from the Christmas story in the bible. I actually have seen this video before (a long time ago, when I was evangelical). Perhaps some Christians would, after seeing the video, sum it up as "they found the star." [I just rolled my eyes so hard.] I now view it more like "here's a fan theory about what the star could have been." It's just somebody's idea, and there's nowhere near enough "evidence" to be making claims that this really is what the star actually was. (Honestly, for any date in history, you could probably look at the constellations and make up a story about how it totally means something.) Fun to make fan theories though!

Part 2: The Star of Bethlehem, a real event?
Part 3: Critique of ‘The Star of Bethlehem’ video
Part 4: Jupiter, Venus, Regulus, and Revelation: the fireworks of a real Star of Bethlehem?
Part 5: How did the Star of Bethlehem move like Tinker Bell?

3. A Few Math Problems for Mothers (July 13) "Felix had an accident during nap time and doesn’t have a spare pair of pants at school. If Felix’s father is listed as the primary point of contact on all documents, how many times does the school call his mother?"

4. Star Wars Christmas Parodies - "Padme Did You Know" and "I'm Dreaming of a New Death Star" (2015) This is AMAZING.

5. One Of The Most Astonishing Sudokus Ever (December 15) 1-hour-37-minute sudoku solve video. I love it.

6. Mary and Jesus in the Eyes of Chinese Painters (December 24) "He reinterpreted Da Vinci’s famous 'Last Supper' in traditional Chinese style, featuring a table, stools, tableware, windows, lanterns, and clothing unique to China."

7. Noncon Porn Taught Me About Rape (2016) "When I was a young fan, I remember reading a bunch of posts that said something like this: 'When you write fanfic, warn for rape if you’re treating the subject seriously as something that traumatizes the victim. Warn for noncon if it’s treated as sexy or if the victim starts consenting part of the way through. Warn for dubcon if the characters’ ability to give consent is dubious– for instance, fuck-or-die, sex pollen, one character being another character’s boss, emotional coercion, or sex where one character is extremely drunk. Of course, in the real world, all of those are rape!'"

Also from the same blog: The Thrill of the Chaste, or Why Dawn Eden Should Not Have Casual Sex (2015) I love this, because it takes an argument like "you shouldn't have casual sex because xyz" and changes it to "if you are the sort of person that would have xyz result if you had casual sex, then you shouldn't have casual sex." It's about knowing yourself. Know what you want or don't want. Not about making rules about "this is how EVERYBODY feels."

8. So, at the beginning of December I posted Square Root's Advent Calendar, and said I would give an update on Square Root's opinions on it. Here's the update: He was very interested in the puzzle, and could do parts of it by himself. He seemed to totally ignore me when I read the bible verses to him. But hey, little kids do pick up on things, so maybe he listened even though he didn't act like it. *shrug*

"Muppet Christmas Carol" Is My Religion

Christmas dinner scene from "The Muppet Christmas Carol." Scrooge and a bunch of muppets are having dinner together. Image source.

[content note: spoilers for "The Muppet Christmas Carol" (1992 movie) and I guess the original story by Charles Dickens]

So I introduced my son to "The Muppet Christmas Carol". And, wow, so happy to watch that movie again! I love that movie.

At the end of the movie, after Scrooge has a change of heart and is going around being generous and celebrating Christmas with everyone, I had a lot of feelings. Like, trying to describe it, I'm like "I feel religious" but obviously "religious" has a lot of different meanings so let me try to explain it more.

Basically, what I want to say is: I'm a Christian, and this is what I think Christianity is about. Being a Christian is very important to my identity, so when I see a portrayal of the most essential core parts of it, it's really emotional for me. I love it. 

And, obviously, I have to put some caveats here- this is about what Christianity means to me, it's about what I think the main point is, but of course other people will have completely different opinions about that. Which is fine. This is just about my own feelings about religion.

And also, obviously, these concepts (being generous, caring about others, etc) don't have to be related to Christianity at all. For me they are related, but obviously anyone can have those values, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof. I don't even think Christianity is like, uniquely connected to these virtuous concepts, or anything like that. I think anyone can take any major religion/ philosophy/ belief system and use it to do good or evil. To find inspiration in your beliefs to fight for a better world, or to find excuses for why you get to make the rules to control everyone else.

And, also, I can imagine that some Christians would criticize "The Muppet Christmas Carol" for not being Jesus-y enough. There are a few mentions of Christianity in the movie, but they're really just cultural indicators rather than being important to the plot. (For example, it's mentioned that Kermit the frog went to church on Christmas Eve.) I used to be evangelical, so I know there must be evangelicals out there saying "this movie is BAD because it's about CHRISTMAS but it doesn't talk about how JESUS is the ENTIRE MEANING of Christmas" blah blah blah. I thought about that criticism, as I watched the movie, as I was overwhelmed by how extremely Christian the ending felt to me.

And... oh man, I feel like I can't even say what I want to say without adding more and more caveats, because what I mean by "Christian" isn't ... like... what it's typically used to mean. Typically it means "explicitly about Jesus" or "claiming that we're right and everyone else is wrong". But what I mean here is... this is what Christianity is really about, to me. (Sometimes on this blog I use the phrase "the kingdom of heaven is like..." to describe this sort of thing.)

You can see I'm still kind of floundering here with the words. So... well, in summary, "The Muppet Christmas Carol" is my religion, and we'll leave it at that.

Other things that are also my religion:

• anything written by Martin Luther King Jr.
• "The New Colossus" ("Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...")
• the song "Praying" by Kesha
• the scene in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" where Ego reveals that he caused the cancer that killed Starlord's mother, and Starlord takes out his blaster and repeatedly shoots Ego, no questions asked
• Micah 6:8
  "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
      And what does the Lord require of you?
  To act justly and to love mercy
      and to walk humbly with your God."
• Bree Newsome climbing the flagpole to remove the Confederate flag, while quoting 1 Samuel 17:45, Psalm 27:1, and Psalm 23
• the scene in "Spiderman: Homecoming" where Tony Stark steps out of his Ironman suit, totally surprising Spiderman because he thought Tony was operating it remotely and didn't care enough to even be there

Readers: Do you have any examples of things that are "your religion" (whatever that means)?

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Related:

"You Weren't There, the Night Jesus Found Me" 

Worship Songs Round-Up

It Was Beautiful When Star-Lord Rejected the Gospel 

"The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" is About Being an Immigrant

"The Only Moral Virgin Birth Is My Virgin Birth"

Mary and baby Jesus. Image text: "Abstinence 99.99% effective." Image source.

Thinking abut Mary, and how a big deal is made about how she was a virgin when she became pregnant and gave birth to Jesus. I always thought her virginity was so important because it meant she was "not like other girls." But now I think actually, the important thing is she is like other girls.

One way to read Mary's story is this: She was pregnant and unmarried. And normally, being pregnant and unmarried is BAD. Women who are pregnant and unmarried are BAD and SINFUL. Sex is DIRTY. To bring the Son of God into the world, God needed a good girl who wasn't like those bad girls who have sex. Mary was special and different. She was the good one, so God choose her. Yes, you absolutely should judge women who get pregnant outside of marriage, but in this one special case, she is good and shouldn't be judged.

(Note: I had premarital sex and it was a good decision for me, so please read any statements in this post like "women who have sex outside of marriage are sinful" with a heavy dose of sarcasm.)

And though I never really put it in those words or thought about it explicitly, that's basically what I thought about the virgin birth, back when I was evangelical. I remember reading a blog post that said "the Christmas story is about believing women" and it made no sense to me. "What?" I thought. "It's about how Mary was so good because her circumstance was unique and different from everyone else. This has nothing to do with believing women in general. The exception proves the rule."

But... Thinking about what it was actually like for Mary, back then, being judged by everyone. Yes, for those of us reading the story 2000 years later, we all know that she really was a virgin, that an angel came to her and told her she would be pregnant, that she obeyed God. That she did nothing wrong, according to the "sex is dirty" standard. (Okay I used the phrase "we all know" but obviously this is a religious belief and not something that can actually be known to be true. What I'm getting at is, inside the universe of the story, we readers know these things are canon.)

So we know that she is good and shouldn't be judged. But how does that help her? Her neighbors/ friends/ relatives didn't know anything about that. Do you think she tried to explain herself to them? Or did she just let them judge her, because she figured no one would believe her if she said an angel visited her?

Well, look at Joseph's reaction. He found out she was pregnant, and obviously assumed she had had sex with some guy, and decided to divorce her quietly instead of making a big public scene about it- which was nice of him. The way I read it is, Mary didn't try to tell Joseph the truth. She didn't give him the chance to believe her or not, because the idea of exposing her whole complicated traumatic personal life to him and then not being believed was just too awful. (Fortunately, an angel came to Joseph in a dream to tell him to stay with Mary.)

So, sure, we readers know the details, and we can judge her based on accurate information and conclude that she was indeed a good person and not a sinful women who had sex outside of marriage. But none of that makes any difference in her actual life, because people around her didn't have that information- and probably wouldn't believe it if she told them- so they still saw her as sinful and dirty.

So there's this surface-level stereotype that random people will apply to her, and there's the complicated reality underneath. Her own complicated, emotional, imperfect, incredible path that led her to this point- but the only thing they see is she's unmarried and pregnant, so they assume the worst.

But isn't that how it always is? This isn't a "she's not like other girls" thing, because this is what happens to women all the time.

There are stereotypes about what kind of woman has sex outside of marriage. What kind of woman lives with her boyfriend. What kind of woman gets pregnant outside of marriage. What kind of woman dresses immodestly. What kind of woman has casual sex. What kind of woman uses contraception. What kind of woman is a single mom. What kind of woman has children with different fathers. What kind of women has an abortion. What kind of woman gets raped. What kind of woman accuses a man of rape. What kind of women uses emergency contraception. What kind of woman gets the HPV vaccine. What kind of woman gets divorced. What kind of woman stays with an abusive partner. What kind of woman works as a sex worker.

Just from observing 1 small aspect of a person's life, random strangers will imagine what kind of person she is, and what bad choices she must have made, and why she should be judged and condemned. 

And I don't think the solution to this is "explain why your circumstances are special and different so you don't deserve to be judged like that" (ie, believing that Mary was good while all the other unmarried pregnant women are bad because Mary was a virgin with a miraculous pregnancy). If you take that approach, it reinforces the idea that, yes, random strangers should be judging you and making wild assumptions about your personal life and your morals. It reinforces the idea that yes, it is right to judge women who are unmarried and pregnant, yes, most of them are bad, but not Mary! It requires people to open up their personal lives and show everything to random strangers, as the only way to avoid being condemned. To show everyone their emotions and trauma and mistakes, things they've experienced that they don't even know how to process yet- they're required to do this; otherwise random strangers are correct to assume the worst.

That wouldn't have worked for Mary. Even if she told people the truth, would anyone believe her?

So no, this "explain why you're the exception" approach isn't right. Instead, the random strangers should stop judging people's personal lives. People are complicated. They're not one-dimensional stereotypes. Have some compassion.

Mary was a virgin when she was pregnant, but she got the same judgment and condemnation as women who got pregnant from unmarried sex. I used to think it was hugely important that she was different... but it's not. Being unfairly judged by random people based on incorrect assumptions about your personal life is something that women everywhere experience.

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Related:

It wasn't like that for Mary. Maybe it's never like that.

Mary's Choice

Merry Christmas From John Piper

Someday Dave Ramsey will have to stand before God and explain why he fired a pregnant woman. Never forget that Dave Ramsey would have fired Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

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The title of this post was inspired by this: “The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion”

"The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" is About Being an Immigrant

Mantis, wearing a Christmas sweater and Christmas tree headband. Image source.

[content note: spoilers for Marvel's "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special"]

I got a bunch of immigrant feelings from watching "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special." It's about Mantis and Drax (2 members of the Guardians of the Galaxy) trying to put on a Christmas celebration for Peter Quill (aka Star-Lord, also one of the Guardians of the Galaxy). Peter is from Earth, and he misses Christmas. All of his friends are aliens, with no real understanding of Christmas traditions, but they want to do something to make it special for Peter, because it's important to him.

Mantis and Drax go to Earth and kidnap Kevin Bacon, and also buy/steal a ton of Christmas decorations. Peter is amazed when he sees all the Christmas decorations they've brought back to their planet. Fake snow, strings of Christmas lights everywhere, Christmas sweaters, and more. (He is horrified when he finds out they've kidnapped Kevin Bacon.)

And, I mean, wow, I'm an immigrant in China, and I know how this feels.

Christmas in China is basically just a commercialized thing, not something that actually has meaning to Chinese people. So they know what Christmas trees and Santa look like, but it doesn't go any deeper than that. There are Christmas decorations set up in all the malls right now, but that's just because the stores want to sell you stuff, not because Chinese people actually care about Christmas.

So it's hard for me, being here, and missing out on the real Christmas traditions. Because of the pandemic, the last time I was in the US with my family for Christmas was 2019.

I think it's nice, when Chinese people ask me about Christmas because they know it's important to me. At the same time, though, it's kind of hard to talk to them about it... I tell them "here's how this or that tradition works" but I can't really make them understand the feeling of being so far away from my culture and missing out on these things. How it's a part of me that is just missing, because I'm in China for Christmas.

My husband is Chinese, and it's great how he cares about what I want and what would make Christmas meaningful to me. Christmas doesn't matter to him- he says before we met, he had never gotten a Christmas gift- but he cares about me so he does Christmas stuff.

So I know how Star-Lord felt, seeing those Christmas lights, seeing his friends dressed in red and green sweaters, seeing the pile of gifts wrapped up. Having friends who don't really have any idea about your holidays, but they want to do this for you. And they get it wrong, in some ways, inevitably, but you can't get stuck on that; you should just enjoy it.

"The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" is about culture, and being an immigrant, and being so far away from your home, and being with friends who love you and are trying their best.

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Also, here's a good review from The Mary Sue: ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special’ Finally Gives Mantis the Respect She Deserves

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Related:

I Didn't Know I Had a Culture Until I Lost It

On Telling My Chinese Husband What I Want For Christmas

It Was Beautiful When Star-Lord Rejected the Gospel

If Thanos Tells You To Build An Ark, You Say No

Square Root's Advent Calendar

Advent calendar that looks like a 2D Christmas tree with 24 pockets under it. Image source.

So my little son is preschool-age now. He's old enough to actually have whole conversations, and so I decided I should do some more Christmas traditions with him now. He's old enough to actually talk about and understand Christmas traditions and the Christmas story. 

So I bought this Advent calendar which has 24 empty pockets, and I printed off bible verses, and I bought a little puzzle and put a few pieces in each pocket. The bible verses are from here: Bible Verse Advent Countdown for Kids – FREE Printable! It has 24 little cards, with extremely simplified bible verses that tell the story of Jesus' birth. And the puzzle is a Nativity scene.

Super excited for this Advent calendar! Every day my son can open the next pocket and we'll read the bible verse and he can add more pieces to the puzzle.

So that's my plan- but you know how little kids are... they may or may not go along with the plan. They care 0% about how much effort you put into it or how important it is to you.

Anyway, yesterday we opened pocket #1. Square Root was very interested in the puzzle pieces (there were 3 pieces the first day). While he was trying to put them together, I read him the bible verse: "God sent the angel Gabriel to a girl named Mary," and then asked him, "Do you remember who Mary is?" but he totally ignored me, and then the puzzle pieces reminded him that he has a dinosaur puzzle, so he asked me to get it for him. 

So that's how that's going.

Anyway, I'm curious about how much he'll understand about the Christmas story, and what he'll think about it. He has a few books about baby Jesus, and he has a toy nativity set, so he's at least vaguely familiar with the characters in the story. I plan to blog about this again later, to let you all know Square Root's thoughts on it. (Edit: here's the update.)

That's all~ Very excited for Advent~

 

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Related:

Taking My Kid To Church (Blog Series)

Taking My Kid To Church: God Loves My Son

Not Sure I Want My Kid Reading the Bible

Blogaround

1. The Christmas Story. My son got this book for Christmas- it's a board book with buttons that make sounds, it tells the story of Jesus' birth, and, GET THIS, NONE OF THE CHARACTERS ARE WHITE PEOPLE. They are all like, brown Middle-Eastern people. That's the way it should be, but WOWWWW I have never seen any nativity book where ALL the people were brown Middle-Eastern people. Usually they're all white, except for 1 black wiseman that gets thrown in for "diversity" or whatever.

Very happy with this book.

2. Teaching Hal Lindsey to teenagers in the ’80s was child abuse (posted January 1) "None of this talk about the future — college, careers, children, grandchildren — was presented to us as contingent. It wasn’t a matter of 'But just in case the Bible prophecy scholars are wrong and the Lord tarries, then you’ll need a Plan B.' It was, instead, a constant yet constantly unacknowledged contradiction. And what that contradiction taught us was that the things we believed or claimed to believe didn’t matter — that the substance of our 'beliefs' did not need to correspond to reality or to affect the reality of our lives in any meaningful way."

If We Literally Stopped Spending Billions on Christmas... Well Basically That's What COVID Lockdowns Are

A piggy bank and Christmas decorations. Image source.

I want to address a particular line of reasoning I've heard charities use in their appeals for donations. I guess I should mention, as a disclaimer, that most charity advertising isn't like this. But this argument has always stuck out to me as being all wrong from a math/economics perspective, and now that we are actually experiencing the economic effects of COVID-19, we see real-world proof that yep, those charities were indeed wrong about the math. All right, here it is:

"Americans spend x millions of dollars on Christmas. It would cost y millions of dollars to provide clean water to everyone in the world. Let's stop focusing so much on consumerism, and help the world instead."

I've heard a lot of messages along these lines- mostly in church, but also from charities. (Here is one example.) How we spend so much money on all these things that aren't really important, but what if we redirected that money to poor people in other countries.

And I always thought, but, if people really did that- if Americans just cold-turkey stopped buying Christmas gifts and donated all the money to charities working in other countries, WOWWWW there would be huge effects on the US economy and it would NOT be good.

And then COVID happened. And we see the real-world effects of shutting down everything that's not "essential."

Isn't that what those charities were telling us to do- for years and years before COVID became a thing- with their "we spend x million dollars on Christmas" messages? They wanted us to stop spending money on things we don't really "need", and donate it instead. As if the math would work thusly: You get fewer Christmas presents, but nothing else is affected, and then a village in Africa gets clean water.

No- the COVID shutdowns show us that the math does NOT work like that. If people stop spending on "non-essential" things, that DOES NOT mean suddenly everyone has a ton of extra money to donate to charity. Instead, it means millions of people who work for "non-essential" businesses lose their jobs. It's really not good.

What if we phrased it not as "Americans spend $x billion on Christmas" but "$x billion of Americans' salaries comes from Christmas-related consumer spending"?

Maybe you'll say I'm being too literal. When a charity makes a video that says "we spend x billion dollars on this and that, imagine how much good we could do if we donated that money instead", they know that there is NO CHANCE that people are really going to go from "x billion" to zero and then donate "x billion" to their charity. They know that that will NEVER EVER HAPPEN, and that's not their goal- their goal is for people to donate a nice amount that's not too terribly different than the charity's normal budget. And indeed, if people donated "a nice amount" rather than "x billion", then there would not be much effect on the US economy. And the charity could do some good.

So all of this makes me wonder about systems and large-scale economies and how to really make a difference. 

People throw around numbers like "it would cost $x million to end world hunger"- there's actually a twitter account called Has Jeff Bezos Decided To End World Hunger? which says "Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $200bn. The IFPRI says it would cost $11bn to end world hunger per year. So, has Jeff Bezos decided to end world hunger today?" I think this is ridiculous. It doesn't work that way. I don't know where this $11 billion estimate comes from, but it definitely does NOT mean there's a store with a product called "end world hunger" which has a price tag of $11 billion, and Jeff Bezos can walk in there, stick it in his shopping cart, and swipe his credit card, and problem solved. You need more than just money- you need political leaders to negotiate and agree on a plan, and you need time to hire people and put the plan into action. There are systemic issues that are extremely difficult to change- maybe even impossible.

And also, Bezos doesn't have billions of dollars in a regular old savings account- it's invested in stuff, and if he decided to just cash out those investments, it would have a huge negative effect on the businesses he invested in.

Maybe I'm being too literal. Maybe everyone knows it's not literally possible to end world hunger by just having $11 billion. Maybe the point is that Bezos should at least donate a bit more, not necessarily that he should donate billions RIGHT NOW.

So I have questions about systems and economies. But I VERY MUCH believe this is NOT a zero-sum game. It is definitely NOT TRUE that if I give money to charity, the employees of the "non-essential' company where I would have spent that money suffer an equal amount to the benefit that the charity's recipients gained. No, definitely definitely not a zero-sum game.

But it bothers me that charities talk about millions and billions of dollars- if we literally did donate that much, tons of retail workers would lose their jobs. These aren't just numbers not connected to anything- when you spend money on Christmas gifts, that's not "wasted"- it pays someone's salary.

It's NOT a zero-sum game. Don't take this to mean "well there's no point in donating money, because American businesses will then suffer." But if we're talking about the big picture, it's much more complicated than "let's stop spending billions on A and spend it on B instead."

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Related:

A Little Story About a Mission Trip and Money

Blogaround

Baby Yoda cookie, from link #2.

1. Treating Food And Exercise Like A Zero-Sum Game Is Peak Eating Disorder Culture (posted December 12) "Putting the number of minutes required to ‘work off’ a food is peak eating disorder culture because food and movement are two different aspects of life that should not be presented as prerequisites for one another. You deserve to eat whether or not you exercise. You deserve to enjoy exercise without verging on the brink of collapse."

YES. 100% agree with this blogger. This whole "putting the amount of exercise to work off the food" on food labels is a TERRIBLE idea. Because what's the objective? Do you want people to literally go out and exercise for that exact amount of time after they eat the food? That's called having an eating disorder. Or do you expect people will go ahead and eat stuff just like they normally do, but feel a little more shame about it, like there's this mountain of exercise debt they're never going to work off?

None of this is a healthy way to view food.

2. Baking hack: Chop off angel head for a homemade Baby Yoda cookie cutter.<**> (posted December 14) This is the way.

3. A Bethel Leader Is Asking the Church to Pray for Her Daughter’s Resurrection (posted December 17) [content note: child death] I have many many feelings and opinions about this. Not going to post them right now though.

4. sometimes I wonder / if Mary breastfed Jesus. / if she cried out when he bit her / or if she sobbed when he would not latch. (posted December 16)