In the Methodist Tradition, the four weeks of Advent have different themes; 1 is Hope, 2 is Peace, 3 is Joy and 4 is Love. I've decided this season to write a little about each of these and post them on the 5th and the 19th in the hopes it will help someone during these times. Also included is a brief fan fiction piece I wrote last night. I am leaving my old fan fiction and screenshot hub next week, the userbase infuriates me for the most part and I feel most of the people there are among the 74,000,000 who voted to turn America into a fascist dictatorship and probably still believe they won.
Hope
Hope
is more than just wishing things will get better. It is actively believing things can get
better and taking an active role in making it so. I’ve tried doing so with my Internet posts, but it doesn’t feel like I’ve done anything
other than energize the choir and tick off the naysayers. To be fair, though, I know people need to be
energized when things are negative, people need to know they don’t struggle
alone. I know this because, too often, I
feel like I struggle alone. I have seen
apathy to a lethal point, I have seen hatred to the point of mass murder or
possibly genocide and I have felt powerless because the people carrying this
have as much bile as you have opposition to it.
Hope isn’t a light switch you can turn on inside your head or heart, it
has to come from outside. You have to
see or feel something that gives you the feeling that things can and will get
better, something that inspires you to get active, to fight for what’s right. This is probably why I like the pictures of
Samus with Smash Bros. Zelda, Urbosa with Breath of the Wild Zelda, Adora with
Catra, Blake with Yang and Edelgard and Byleth so much, they show me Western
Society is changing to a more welcoming and compassionate worldview, whether
the right-wing politicians like it or not.
For the same reason, I feel like I’d lay down my live for the lesbian couples at my Church if I had to and it meant they’d be safe. Because I believe that LGBTQ+ people deserve
all the respect and love Straight, Cisgender people already have, because we
are all human. We all deserve the same
respect and we deserve to fight for each other when prejudice strikes.
Peace
One
of my favorite more modern Christmas songs is John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is
Over).” In these days, Peace, whether
inner, outer or worldwide, feels like a pipe dream at best, a hopeless wish
that would be impossible to achieve.
Inner peace, for me, though, is actually easier to come by than you’d
think. When the lockdown started, I
bought an album called “Acoustic Guitar for a Zen Quarantine” from Amazon. To make sure it would not grow stale, I also made
a playlist of relaxing and positive music and a playlist of stand-up comedy and
funny songs. These always succeed in
relaxing me or improving my mood, and listen to the Christmas Carols these days
is also doing wonders for my inner peace.
Some of the songs that relax me or cheer me up are “These Four Walls,” "Malibu," “Midnight Sky” and “She’s Not Him” by Miley Cyrus, “Somebody Said A Prayer” and
“Brown-Eyed Girl” by Billy Ray Cyrus, “Yellow Submarine” by The Beatles, “Stop”
by Anthony Ramos, “Jesus Take The Wheel” and “Love Wins” by Carrie Underwood,
“The Wonder Of The Cross” by Vicky Beeching, “Patience” by Chris Cornell and
“Be Yourself” by Audioslave. Some of my
other favorite Christmas songs are almost anything off Carrie Underwood’s new
Christmas album, most of Rob Halford’s Christmas album from last year,
especially “Protected By The Light,” Miley Cyrus’ versions of “Santa Claus is
Coming To Town” and “Happy Xmas (War is Over),” Billy Ray Cyrus and Cheap
Trick’s versions of “Run Rudolph Run,” Leslie Odom Jr.’s rendition of “O Holy
Night,” Ariana Grande’s version of “Last Christmas” and her original song
“Santa Tell Me,” almost anything by Idina Menzel and Neal Schon’s version of “O
Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Funny tends to
be in the eye of the beholder, but my playlist has Bill Engvall, Jeff
Foxworthy, Jim Gaffigan and stuff from the Homestar Runner/Strong Bad
catalogue. I really do also feel we
should end our military involvement in the Middle East aside from protecting
Israel, at this point, it has gone on far too long and needless lives have been
lost for completely unclear reasons. Mr.
Biden, Members of the US Senate, War is Over, if you want it.
Edelgard sat at the piano as Samus, Zelda, Blake, Yang and her wife Byleth played with their Christmas presents. She softly played some chords and began singing, “I can’t change, even if I tried, even if I wanted to. I can’t change, even if I tried, even if I wanted. My love, my love, my love, she keeps me warm, she keeps me warm, she keeps me warm.” Byleth wiped away a tear and went to Edelgard, putting her coat on her shoulders as Samus sang along, looking at Zelda. Blake softly kissed Yang on the lips as Edelgard and Samus continued singing Mary Lambert. It was a peaceful Christmas, helped by the hopes that the worries in the real world would soon decrease.
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