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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

I am really NOT religioust

Meaning, I do not discriminate because of religion. But this is my second post about Jehovah's witnesses. And I happened upon this thought last night when I was reading the Christmas issue of Women's Day magazine. I know, I know, it's too early to be thinking about Christmas, but I can't help it because I work retail and because all the magazines send out their Christmas issue in November! So, I was reading the section of Woman's Day where women were discussing their best Christmas ever, and one of the women was talking about how the best Christmas she ever had was when she and her husband had nothing but a small tree because they had just moved to Beijing. I thought back to my most memorable Christmas, and what came to mind was when I was living with my mom in second grade, the year that we house-sat for a rich family who was off in some hot city like Palm Springs, for the winter. I remember how she took scraps of wood and a few nails to make me a very simple box with a shelf inside, and a cross-piece to hold the shelf up. This simple box was a dollhouse. Nothing fancy, in fact, it was painted plain white, with no other markings, "left for [me] to decorate". I got a few dollar store accessories, but in truth, it wasn't really that much, and yet I was happy with it, as this American couple in China was. I started thinking about Christmas now, and how I ask for and get basic stuff, like socks, underwear, and snack foods (for study breaks), and I rely on getting that stuff at Christmas, because I am a poor college student, but those are the essentials, and I feel bad asking my parents for it because they are already contributing so much to my education, or as much as they can anyway.

So how this relates is that I had some friends when I was growing up that were practicing Jehovah's witnesses, which means, for those of you who don't know, they don't celebrate holidays. This was hard for me to understand because I was so accustomed to giving gifts for Christmas and birthdays. We were kind of on the same plane of socio-economic status so the daughter and I had a lot in common. But she had two brothers, and therefore they had less money. Thinking about it now, I depend on my parents to give me the essentials that I need for school, like paper, socks, underwear, ect. And now, I think about how neglected children in Jehovah's Witnesses families might feel. I think about how they get their essentials if their parents don't give them essentials that much..

Just a thought.

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