So, Christmas Spirit?

To be honest, I think these days Christmas is all about buying gifts and spending money. Well, not these days literally, but this is a well-known consumer society tradition that has been present in our life since we can remember. It’s not just the action of spending hours in malls and shopping centers instead of spending time with friends and family what annoys me, but the common belief that we’ll find happiness by spending money we may not have, in order to buy things we don’t need, to some people we usually don’t like.

Thankfully, my family is not all like this. We like to show we care about others by giving them gifts, and I personally dislike those who use presents to emotionally compensate people they offended. My relatives are the 1st kind of people. We still give each other presents that we buy; but we also celebrate, with a family dinner, we are once more together, happy and healthy. Although —and I’m not going to lie to you— it’s been quite long since we last celebrated Jesus birth. I wonder how many people out there remember the original meaning of Christmas; I mean, I’m thinking of those who do not idolatrize Santa or credit cards.

I just don’t get it. To me, money ain’t the source of happiness. Material possessions either. So, I believe those who get crazy about buying and receiving presents for Christmas are missing the whole point of gifts: the reciprocity in the favor exchange. It may be the sociologist side in me, but I can’t help being reminded by Marcel Mauss’ work, “The Gift”, about the symbolic meaning of exchanging presents. So I just cannot tolerate the consumer meaning behind Christmas and every festivity.

Here you have some pictures that may, or may not, make you smirk.
If not, then they’ll make you think about Christmas spirit:

http://www.cinismoilustrado.com/2011/12/quien-es-santa.html

http://www.cinismoilustrado.com/2011/12/grinch-cards.html

http://www.cinismoilustrado.com/2011/12/jesus-nacio-por-tus-regalos.html

“We spend money that we do not have,
on things we do not need,
to impress people who do not care.”
will Smith.

My Hobby, Archery:

"Red Apple"

from Loading Artist

http://www.loadingartist.com/2011/11/21/red-apple/

At first, I thought I wouldn’t be much difficult to talk about my hobby. But then I realized it might be a bit tricky: I’d had to pick one of the many things I enjoy doing, such as reading comics (and memes) on the Internet, cooking, practicing yoga, painting and drawing, taking long walks while listening to music, singing, writing, or reading a book.

And then it hit me, I don’t really have time to practice most of them; in fact, it’s been quite long since I last finished a whole book; because, lately, with all the things I have to do for the university, I don’t want to do anything else...

So, the hobby today I'm talking about is this entertaining activity I‘ve regularly been doing for the last five months: archery. Which I’d define as:

“the art of shooting several times with a bow and arrows to the same center of a distant target”.

And I say art, because is much more that just standing with the handle in one hand while holding the string with the other, and then releasing this string to shoot the arrow.

These days, archery is considered a sport, but it was originally developed for hunting about 5 hundred years ago, or more, and later the bow was used in battles.

Well, my passion for archery started last August when my Dad and I signed up for an archery course for beginners at the Chilean Archery Federation. It took us about 2 months to shoot without many mistakes. Now we practice every Sunday. We may not practice a lot, but I enjoy it because we share a hobby and we spend precious "quality-time" together.

Well, I look for sharing more about my hobby with you, soon. And hopefully you’ll see me practicing this sport.

Bye!

PS: That's so no me on that photo. Neither on the comic.