In my previous entry, I wrote about being a conveyor of spirit, specifically the Christmas spirit, which reflects the best qualities we possess and should share with others. 
To something beyond us that we do not own. Through my foundation, I’ve aimed to set a more universal tone, encouraging each of us to look inward and discover how to express our highest and best attributes and aspirations.
Some friends on a couple of blogs called me out for suggesting that, this spirit should frame Christmas solely as a celebration of the “Christ spirit.”
I argued that no one owns what can only be described as “universal spirit,” and that it’s simply whatever path or mechanism leads or takes you there. It’s like it doesn’t matter how someone gets bogged down, they have to find their way home.
Over twenty years ago when I was in China when I would get on the overnight train from Beijing to Qufu that was about a ten-hour trip when I would wake up in the hard sleeper I usually took, the train was filled with Christmas music they played overhead every day all year even in July. What we would define as American or English Christmas music we only hear in December. At first, I was shocked then when I asked, they said they played “what we would define as our Christian Christmas music year-round” because the people liked it. That the “Christmas spirit was universal”. Some people here in America think they have ownership of this spirit of Christmas… they don’t. Oh, and there has probably been more people in China who have been baptized, into what is called the Family Christian Church, than there are people baptized into Christian churches in the USA. No kidding. 
When you go into large department stores during this time of year in China, they play Christmas music overhead that you hear throughout the store… Something I would say is a unique juxtaposition is you often see Santa playing a saxophone in store windows as you walk down the street. I wish I would have taken a picture. Seeing Santa playing the saxophone was meant to lift people’s spirit because it was the holiday season. They would say that this spirit is meant to be universal.
Finally, back in high school in the late 1960’s (1968,69,70) I would listen to English language broadcasts on a shortwave radio to programs from countries all over the world. Every year I would get over a dozen Christmas cards from different countries that would say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in ten or twelve languages inside. Radio Budapest, Radio Prague, the BBC, the Vatican, Radio Lisbon in Portugal, Canada, Kiev, etc., etc.
I doubt seriously that when they sent out Christmas cards they did so for any reason other than the spirit of hope. Hope that the universality of mankind they saw as “Christmas spirit” was a dream even a beacon they could only envision that perhaps was yet unseen. Each of us everywhere is meant to be that beacon of hope, perhaps expressed as the “Christ presence” in the best way we know how.
My travels with Lieh Tzu / Interpolations along the Way
Chapter Eight – Explaining Conjunctions
157. Forgetful to the End
What was the Duke of Pai to do? Before his own death, he continually vowed revenge for the execution of his father. He had urged the Prime Minister of Ch’u to make war on Cheng. He was always meditating on rebellion and bringing others into his cause. 
This day would be no different. On coming out of the Court, he could only think of what he must do next and as he stood leaning against his horse, his saber point stuck in his cheek just enough so that blood came running down his suit of clothes to the ground. He was so caught up in his thoughts he had failed to notice the blood, got up onto his horse and rode off. The men of Cheng, who had killed the Duke of Pai’s father heard about what had happened later and one commented:
“If he forgets his own head, is there anything he will not forget?”
They all recalled the story of the robber of Chi, and the stunt he pulled that helped him to become a legend for his absentmindedness with the following story. The man one day just put on his hat and coat and set out for the market. He went into the stall of the local gold dealer, snatched the man’s gold and ran. When the police caught him, they asked him:
“Why would you snatch someone else’s gold in front of so many people?”
The man’s only response was that when he saw the gold, he didn’t see all the people. He saw only the gold. That the Duke suffers from similar absentmindedness only confirms his singleness of purpose to get his revenge for our killing his father. 
You know, his grandfather, the King of Chu, was an honorable man and the duke reminds me of him. Their leader concluded by saying:
“If the Duke is so focused on seeking revenge to the point that he walks as if stumbling over tree stumps and holes, and knocking his head on door posts and trees, even drawing his own blood from his own saber then we needn’t worry about him. His end, like that of the man who attempted to steal gold, will come soon enough on his own. We shouldn’t be bothered.” 9/4/95
Number one hundred fifty-seven of one hundred fifty-eight entries.
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