Reply #13: Remove heart from sleeve and enjoy our community

[PurityOfEssence]

Don't take offense when I wish you happy holidays, and I won't take offense at intrusive religion. My wish is just all-encompassing joy, whereas yours is tainted with proselytizing. Still, Christmas is so celebrated by so many that it hasn't the religious flavor that most hard-core evangelists would like; it's a tradition shared by most of us in the West.

There's no war on Christmas; there's a resistance to having our faces crushed into the dirt and forced to acknowledge some wacky cosmic guess at every turn, especially in a time of warmth and comfort.

I've never had a problem with being wished Merry Christmas, but those who demand that their supernatural assumption be given undeniable and unchecked sway are tiresome.

Wishing it is pretty neutral; expecting some sort of affirmation for standing up for divisiveness in a pluralist society is anti-social. Wasting other people's psychic energy at what should be a time of relaxation and group joy is just subversive. If anyone's thumped on you for wishing your chosen greeting on your private time when not working for the government, they're thin-skinned. If you have a problem with others not wanting their warm and snuggly time of the year intruded upon by another constant reminder of the rapaciousness of a world-conquering and domineering belief system, then you need some coaching in the elemental concept of empathy and coexistence.

Merry Christmas.