An [updated] email response from Tonia to Leslie about using C'mas not X-mas (written in 2003) . . .
Dear Leslie,
After reading your article "Questioning Holiday Tradition" I felt that you expressed what I have been feeling for over 15 years. It has been my personal mission to change the way the word Christmas is abbreviated. It is yet another iconic change that has been difficult for me to get others to adopt. However, I have personally used C'mas instead of x-mas since 1987 for the same reasons you wrote and quoted in your article:
"[The equilateral cross] is a sacred symbol that has been around for a long, long time. It has also been abused by many. As this new potential for knowing the God within was awakening on the planet at that time, humanity did something to this sacred symbol. They nailed a man to it! They placed a horrible energy on this sacred symbol. They put suffering in the doorway of divine revelation. It has stayed there ever since."
When seen with the physical eyes, C'mas has a calming and "unknotting" effect on my heart. Ultimately, it would be best to not abbreviate the word at all. But I envision seeing all of those hand-painted signs that read C'mas Trees for Sale and After C'mas Sale and Big C'mas Event! embracing this grammatically correct abbreviation rather than continuing to use the subliminally denouncing and denying 'X' version.
And yes, I know the X is a symbol for the Cross on which Jesus was crucified so we will always remember he was born to die for our sins. Well first of all, it is now an X not a unilateral cross + which is what it is supposed to be. And what does X mean to us universally? Cross it out, cancel it, not allowed, don't go there, not permitted. Mhm.
Finally, is was a twisted system of thought that would deflect or obscure the message of love and compassion that Jesus came here to teach and instead have us focus on all the pain he suffered "for us" at the end of his life. We're supposed to be celebrating his birthday not his deathday. Let's give Jesus the respect and honor he deserves by celebrating and living his life and teachings and taking responsibility for our own 'sins' every day.
It's time that people decided for themselves that if they celebrate or have a business that benefits from Christmas, to abbreviate it the same way every other word is abbreviated - using the letters that actually appear in the word! We don't need the church or anyone else to tell us how to spell especially if it is to keep us in a state of guilt, subliminally or otherwise.
One by one, little by little, we the people can change this - without permission of anyone but our own Christed Inner Authority!
In the One,
Tonia
"I can't stop a wave in motion."
(a line from the poem Wave In Motion by Tonia Pinheiro)
Tonia Pinheiro
Wake Up! Artist
wakeupworks[at]gmail.com
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