On this merry Christmas Eve

A Christmas wish from a world long, long past.  The past, they say, is another world.  I don't know why, but the picture* on this post strikes me as indicative of that sentiment.  In case you don't get it, it's a Christmas card sent out by the company that produced Dungeons and Dragons.  The various caricatures are the individuals involved in the game's creation and publication.  There were other games and items produced as well.  No doubt some of them were involved in the other products.  The post itself walks you through who each is supposed to represent.

But it hit me how ubiquitous the Christmas/Christian culture was, even with something as 'controversially counter-culture' as the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game.  I've mused on that before, such as where MTV was as late as my college years in the mid and late 1980s, how Christian culture still cast a long shadow already awash in Woodstock, MTV and secular materialism.  In 2011 when I posted the MTV link, I wondered what radical changes would happen in the future.   In 2011, I had no idea that there would be serious debates about abolishing free thought, free speech and religious liberty in order to eliminate the right to think there is such a thing as boys and girls.

Something happened in our country.  I think it had been happening for a long time, subtly, slowly, under the radar.  But between the late 80s to early 90s, that slow, purposeful movement burst out of the shadows and gave us what we are seeing today.

Of course I'm not saying there are no Christmas images from products today.  I'm not suggesting there is not even a swift nod to the holiday.  I merely notice that if it is there, it seems nowhere near as plentiful as it was in the day.  After all, as late as the year of Star Wars (1977) the trappings of the holiday as traditionally understood in American society found itself in the greeting card of a game dedicated to fantasy role-playing and all the trappings that came along with it.

In any event, enjoy this blessed Christmas season.  In the end, we'll always have the true spirit of Christmas, and nobody can take that from us.  Merry Christmas.

*I chose not to post the picture due to ownership and copyright issues.  If you check the comments, you'll see why.