kingdom come

I love it when opposites overlap, when there's suddenly a tangent of common ground; when environmentalists work together with timber companies, when luddites work with technology, when a nemesis suddenly becomes an ally towards a common goal. In the same spirit I find myself strangely aligned with the religious right in these pre-christmas days... against the cultural invasion of consumerism—or as they say, secular consumerism.

"None of us like Christmas," says McKinley sitting around with some of his pastor friends, adding, "That's sort of bad if you're a pastor." Instead of helping their congregations focus on the season of Advent and prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, the pastors found themselves competing with a secular consumerism that made December the hardest time to make their message heard.
(from an article on yahoo about Advent Conspiracy)

I like Christmas. I like all celebrations with a good story. I'm not religiously affiliated in any way. Mostly because I believe that choosing a religion runs counter to being religious, since all religions implicitly—if not explicitly—state that they're the best (or worse, the only choice). This is the cause of much divisiveness, intolerance and persecution, running quite counter to the teachings of Jesus, Buddha or Muhammed...

What I do believe in is the all inclusive kingdom, the five kingdoms of life that work together as one.

Our christmas tree this year celebrates one of these kingdoms, the kingdom of fungi, for contributing to life as we know it.


The fungi kingdom is the kingdom that keeps all other kingdoms in circulation by breaking down matter, and making it freely available for the continuous reanimation of life.

Ever wonder what happens to all those christmas trees after they've served their short and symbolic purpose?

Unless burned it'll be fungi that breaks the tree down into its constituent elements making them available for use in the next life cycle. True reincarnation at work!

So yeah, we're just getting a head start this year... plus we like our fungus edible. Mmmmmm, shitakes.