<snip by E.>


> In between helping Paul with the cottage renovation work, I also
> managed to put together a small photo page of some items from this
> past winter in Arizona. http://morelife.org/personal/photos/

<snip by E.>


In an e-mail to Kitty regarding a recent holiday photo that she had
posted (see above), I made the following remark:

-----
Hi, Kitty:

I just read Message #1216 and saw the picture of you
and Paul around the holidays in your living room in
Casa Grande. For some reason, I was surprised that
you decorated for the holidays. I don't know why I
was surprised, but I was! :)

~Emily
-----


Kitty's response was the following:

-----
Not an unreasonable reaction given Paul's and my written views. Why
not post your message to MoreLife Yahoo and I'll supply you with an
answer.
-----

So, finally, Kitty, I have officially posted the subject and eagerly
await your response when time permits!

~Emily

[Actually I'd expected that someone would have asked me about that photo of us
earlier, a cropped version of which was included on our Personal page under our
bios for a couple months starting at the beginning of February. (I like to
update that photo every few months so that people can see what we look like
currently rather than in carefully posed photos that could be years old - as so
many others do.)

I very much enjoy festive lights and brightly colored decorations; something I
never outgrew from childhood. The year end holidays, including the celebration
of Christmas by Christians, provides me with lots of opportunities to admire the
artistry of window dressers and homeowners. It was a real treat the first 2
winters with Paul in Toronto walking through various business areas gazing into
shop windows and at building exteriors often ingeniously decorated.

Colorful Lights and homemade decorations were a regular part of year end
holidays with my previous husband, my son and my longtime partner. While my
previous husband was also an atheist, like me he enjoyed the decorations and
festivities that accompany that time of year. We regularly bought a living
desert pine (about 5' tall) left it outside on the back porch in front of the
north-facing window of the living room and decorated with several strings of
small lights and a few non-breakable decorations, including bright red bows. (We
then planted the tree in mid-January along the west boundary of our property as
a visual barrier and wind break.) The windows of the living room would be
outlined on the inside with the same type lights and a string of candle shaped
lights on an artificial bough of evergreens above the fireplace. The arrangement
of the north and south facing windows in the living room create several
reflected images which always intrigues me at any time of the year, but
especially when the holiday lights are up.

Paul likes the practice of "winter lights" as they are sometimes called in
Canada where many people leave them up for months. He added a string of lights
around the kitchen sliding glass door which can be seen from the living room and
provide a different set of reflections. This year we enjoyed the winter lights
for just over 3 months, taking them down only a week before Olafur arrived to
visit. So setting up the camera on the back of the sofa facing the fireplace to
take a photo of the both of us in our colorful light decorated living room (with
ceiling lights low) was a natural thing to do - I also enjoy preserving little
bits of personal history ;>)

http://morelife.org/personal/photos2006/JanhomAZ060108221626_9_750x563.jpg

**Kitty]

[This is but one example of how being an atheist does not mean that one eschews
many pleasurable things just because they have generally been associated with
religion and belief in god. Much religious music is very beautiful in an
absolute sense. One can simply ignore the silly words, just as one ignores silly
words in popular songs which are musically attractive. The same is true for
religious paintings and religious architecture. In this respect, that old
expression "don't throw out the baby with the bath water" applies to all
creations of religion. --Paul]

[I too like having christmas lights during the holidays and it has nothing to do
with religion. I like the change in atmosphere the decorative lights can create
and it's been a tradition for my family to have decorative lights during
christmas ever since I was a kid, as is true for most people here in Iceland. We
often keep some of the lights up long after the holidays are over. They really
help give you a warm feeling during the long and dark winters here. -°Olafur]

[Olafur's comment reminded me that Winter Solstice celebration long precedes the
holiday of Christmas by Christians. The idea of rejoicing that the longest night
has arrived and those to come will be shorter until the Summer Solstice is a
logical celebration of a major point in the earth's solar year. Therefore, it
often appears odd to me that so many people in the US, where separation of
religion (church) and state is formally separate, demonstrate behavior that only
the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ is noteworthy, although this time
period was selected by early Christians so that they could blend in with Winter
Solstice celebrations by those of other religions around them. **Kitty]

[And yes, if we lived in southern Australia, New Zealand, southern Argentina or
South Africa we would likely not put up lights at Xmas time, but instead during
the winter solstice there which would occur near the end of June. --Paul]