"To understand these questions you might understand large audiences that focus on a few subjects such as sports, finance, economics, and politics. These are subjects that are basis for anger in commentary by authors and readers alike."
I thought about the question and emailed him this reply,
"Hal, I don’t have a set purpose. When I started writing the San Ramon Observer in 2002 my purpose was to write about City Council meetings and things going on in San Ramon. I still use that title, but I write about whatever is on my mind now. I try to throw in local happenings, like attending the Wilson Phillips Concert at the San Ramon Performing Arts Center but I don’t always write about San Ramon or local issues.
Blogs are short for Weblog, which originally began as a kind of online diary. I try to make mine a little more focused than that, but it still is a stream of consciousness essay on whatever I’m thinking about at the moment. My purpose is just to be me. I’m planning to write my next blog on Bernie Sanders, except it isn’t really about Bernie Sanders. It’s really about me. It’s always about me. (I posted my blog on Sanders two weeks ago),
Now that you ask that question, maybe I should write about that too." So this blog is once again about me writing about me. Now that the year is wrapping up I may start writing about the end-of-year holidays.
Hal sent me an email about a Hindu holiday I never heard of before. "Diwali, also known as Deepavali, Dipavali, Dewali, Deepawali or the Festival of Lights, marks the beginning of the Hindu New Year. It is celebrated on the 15th day of Kartika (October/November) in the Hindu calendar. Diwali celebrations can last for about five days. In Singapore, November 10, 2015 starts the celebration."
I emailed Hal back,
"I’m not familiar with Hindu holidays, but that sounds a lot like the Jewish Chanukah, also called the Festival of Lights and celebrated for 8 days in December. Many of these ancient holidays evolved from other religions, like Jesus’ birth is celebrated in December, for which there is no documented proof, but it corresponds to a similar celebration in another ancient religion.
Ancient people were very superstitious and they noticed things like the days got shorter and the nights got longer in the winter months. It must have been scary until December 20 or so when the sun started hanging around longer after the Winter Solstice. The religion of Astrology evolved into the science of Astronomy over the Centuries, but the fight between the faithful and the factfull still goes on."
