Friday Five: Holiday Seson, part II
Nov. 16th, 2018 02:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jack4. Have you seen any (non-commercial, i.e. store) holiday lights yet?
I'm not sure, I don't go into the town centre very much. But I do like holiday lights, especially ones not tied specifically to christmas like snowflakes strung across town streets, and trees with subtle white lights in, and they're one tradition which I originally associated with Christmas I'd be happy to see embraced as a general "all winter" tradition.
5. Have you been good to Santa’s way of thinking?
Hoo, boy, and for question five we get the nature of good! :)
Um, I try to do good? But I never feel like I do enough whether I do or not. I always feel like other people are a lot more effective! But every so often someone points out that something I'd trained myself to do habitually had been really good even though I glossed it over to myself. So I don't know.
I think tradition has a "good list" and a "bad list". But all the stories about someone being on the wrong list seem to involve doing a bad thing, not doing insufficient good things. I don't even know if they cancel out, or what. It's very ethical philosophical...
It also raises the question of different stereotypes about good. My family never really talked about being good at all, for which I think them. I was just naturally very obliging, if I understood what someone wanted, so supernatural reinforcement was probably overkill. But if you do, the stereotype of "good for santa" is one very much of dutiful *obedience*, of doing things on time, of doing tasks you were assigned, of not causing trouble, not of dutiful *action*, of doing something decisive and unexpectedly nice for someone, etc.
I think there's a lot to be said for habitual, boring goodness. Think "driving safely". But I have actually been trying to cultivate more initiative and less conformity. More standing-up-for-what's-right-and-damn-what-people-think. I'm not sure if that's very santa friendly. Although I suppose C S Lewis thought it was. And my friends with children probably know better, I should ask them.
All that was summed up by a comic I sometimes think about (even if I don't necessarily agree): https://pclips-archives.erfworld.com/1/177
Two of Santa's reindeer are talking.
A: How old are children when they figure out that the naughty and nice list are a scam? I mean, they say you'll be rewarded if you're good.
A: But Santa always comes anyway and the only thing that determines how much Santa brings you is -- for some reason -- how rich your parents are.
B: They never figure it out. It gradually evolves into the protest work ethic.
I'm not sure, I don't go into the town centre very much. But I do like holiday lights, especially ones not tied specifically to christmas like snowflakes strung across town streets, and trees with subtle white lights in, and they're one tradition which I originally associated with Christmas I'd be happy to see embraced as a general "all winter" tradition.
5. Have you been good to Santa’s way of thinking?
Hoo, boy, and for question five we get the nature of good! :)
Um, I try to do good? But I never feel like I do enough whether I do or not. I always feel like other people are a lot more effective! But every so often someone points out that something I'd trained myself to do habitually had been really good even though I glossed it over to myself. So I don't know.
I think tradition has a "good list" and a "bad list". But all the stories about someone being on the wrong list seem to involve doing a bad thing, not doing insufficient good things. I don't even know if they cancel out, or what. It's very ethical philosophical...
It also raises the question of different stereotypes about good. My family never really talked about being good at all, for which I think them. I was just naturally very obliging, if I understood what someone wanted, so supernatural reinforcement was probably overkill. But if you do, the stereotype of "good for santa" is one very much of dutiful *obedience*, of doing things on time, of doing tasks you were assigned, of not causing trouble, not of dutiful *action*, of doing something decisive and unexpectedly nice for someone, etc.
I think there's a lot to be said for habitual, boring goodness. Think "driving safely". But I have actually been trying to cultivate more initiative and less conformity. More standing-up-for-what's-right-and-damn-what-people-think. I'm not sure if that's very santa friendly. Although I suppose C S Lewis thought it was. And my friends with children probably know better, I should ask them.
All that was summed up by a comic I sometimes think about (even if I don't necessarily agree): https://pclips-archives.erfworld.com/1/177
Two of Santa's reindeer are talking.
A: How old are children when they figure out that the naughty and nice list are a scam? I mean, they say you'll be rewarded if you're good.
A: But Santa always comes anyway and the only thing that determines how much Santa brings you is -- for some reason -- how rich your parents are.
B: They never figure it out. It gradually evolves into the protest work ethic.
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Date: 2018-11-17 07:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-17 12:26 pm (UTC)