So why is it important?

We live in a society that is obsessed with Christmas. Far too often, it's for the wrong reasons, of course. Either we're witnessing insane devotion to commerce or being beaten into the ground by the religious zealots who can't bear the thought that anyone might be less fascinated by Christianity than they themselves.

It's called missing the point, in both instances.

Think about this:

Throughout human history, we've looked to the old, the powerful, the wise, the great leader, the military genius, the mighty hunter, and other accomplished adults, who, for good or ill, had done significant things, usually on a monumental scale.

Beowulf, Alexander, Napoleon, Caesar...

Statues and tributes to all of them and more have been placed in the public eye for millenia, books and songs written, tales told around fires and in the halls and classrooms and homes, all lionizing the doing of great deeds, the slaying of fearsome beasts, the killing...always the killing.

And always the look was toward the past.

Not this time.

We chose, in this case, to celebrate not accomplishments, but a birth. The smallest, weakest, least capable among us, an infant.

By definition, we are looking to the future.

Take away the religious overlay (please!) and the commercial madness (likewise) and we have perhaps the first time Western society looked to the future instead of the past.

It's no accident we celebrate this in the winter, the season of cyclical rebirth, just after the longest, darkest night of the year.

Whatever else you choose to believe, celebrate this...