So Christmas…I have fond childhood memories of padding down the stairs with my four siblings and being awestruck by the lights on the tree reflecting off our many gifts – our parents loved Christmas and were very generous. And actually I have five siblings, but Brian didn’t come along until I was 13, and by the time he was ready for Santa and reindeer and such, I was beyond all that…I like the literature Christmas has inspired, particularly Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I don’t care for Dickens’ longer works, and as such I lump him in the same category as Stephen King. But wow, A Christmas Carol and King’s Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption are two of my favorite stories, ever, and have translated to the screen better than nearly all novels/novellas I can think of…But of course, the materialistic crap associated with the holiday is offensive to me and many others…On a related note, a few years ago, my brother Mike and I had a rebellion against the Thanksgiving tradition of overeating and watching TV all day, and since my wife was working and Mike was freshly divorced, we sailed from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C., spending the night before the holiday anchored at Sucia Island in the San Juans, and the following day happily freezing as we made the passage to Canada, accompanied by no boats but plenty of leaping porpoises. One of the most beautiful memories of my life was sailing the final couple of miles through Vancouver Harbor at dusk, with the cold Cascades in the distance and the city lights reflecting off the waves…But back to Christmas. This year Mike is sailing alone down the Mexican coast, and I think that’s a fine way to spend the holiday, and you go, Bro!…By the way, scientists suggest Jesus was born in the spring (based on the “star in the east,” likely a supernova), and the only reason we celebrate his birth this time of year is that the Christian tradition got mixed in with Celtic and other Pagan winter festivals associated with the winter solstice on Dec. 21st… I should note that I have much admiration for Jesus, who was clearly an enlightened being, but the extremes of deity worship and materialistic consumption render the whole holiday blasphemous, in my opinion, and I think he’d be offended as well…I can’t relate at all to the Infant Savior, but I like the flawed Jesus – the kid who probably cried a lot in that meager manger, was occasionally curt with his mom, disappeared in his teens, felt frustrated by his friends and misunderstood by old school elders; the young rebel, who disliked authority, enjoyed having his feet washed by a woman with fine hair, told his truth without spin, lost his temper in the temple, hung out with folks of questionable moral character, doubted himself (“Who do men say that I am?”) and, as another reverend once put it when discussing the parable of the fig tree, had his share of bad days…This is the “Hippie Jesus,” according to Lame Deer, and the guy that poet Carl Sandburg admired – he said he didn’t know the Jesus that preachers shouted about on Chicago street corners, just as I don’t recognize the man conservatives worship now…Jesus was The Dude, long before the Coen brothers resurrected him, but damn if those two Jewish guys from Minnesota (with considerable help from Jeff Bridges) didn’t get it right – The Jesus Dude Abides, even if we do celebrate his birthday nearly half a year off…So Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year.