I.S. Eve

Hey, tomorrow is the solstice and therefor, as we all know, it will soon be time to give holiday presents to your internet friends and foes.

This well-established holiday will be celebrated by everyone you know online and I'm sure you have your charitable gift ready for your visitors already. I know I can't wait for you to open my gift.

Since I first brought up the Inter Solstice, though, there's been a change in one of the time honored traditions. I was listening to Glen Beck the other day and heard him link the winter solstice, of all things, to the war against Christmas! Then I heard another conservative talk show host do the same. I had no idea that the very tilt of the earth conspires against the righteous.

So now I kind of feel like the Inter Solstice won't catch on, except amongst diabolical atheists and maybe some subset of baby seal fur traders. I only picked the solstice because I felt it was memorable, non-political, and it generally came before the most popular holidays, thus giving time to guilt others into giving before Christmas or whatever. I swear, I only ruin societies by accident; it's the story of my life.

The new tradition is that only the orthodox celebrants of the Inter Solstice give their visitors a charitable donation on the solstice. But that's not necessary; give for Christmas, Hanukkah, Eid... I just hope people do give their internet friends a charitable gift on or a bit before their respective holiday; spread charity, especially with the economy the way it is for so many.
You can find out more about this wonderful holiday here. Though I never found time to completely finish the site, the bare bones are there and if it catches on I'll put more work into it for next year. That's right, guilt; I can only hope there's a contagious holiday miracle to keep this going...

Also, I want to be clear: it's tradition to just give as though everybody gives a charitable donation to their blog readers and such on the holidays. Make it seem like all the cool kids are doing it, right? For goodness sake do not link back to me or this blog. Nothing would kill a fledgling holiday like linking it to gay guy's blog.

Also, let's add, though it shouldn't need to be said as it's just like Christmas or a Birth Day this way, there's no need to leave the price tag on. The idea is just to give something. If it's 5 or 500 bucks to, say, Habitat for Humanity, great, but make sure your online visitors and followers know you gave something to them. No need to make a whole post out of it or anything, a sentence or a tweet would do; just spread it. It may be small this year, but who knows, right? It could grow into something wonderful, and you, yes you, can make that happen [to be read in a platitudey voice, like everything I write].

At that, I hope you all have a spectacular Solstice, along with all the other wonderful days this time of year has to offer. I hope you all know I've appreciated the company and following your lives as well. I wish you and yours the best.