"Those People"
The other day, I was listening to a podcast, and one of the host starting talking about people who start to decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving has even had a chance to get going. You know these people. They are the ones who can't wait for the designated month to get the Holiday started. They decorate Christmas trees in October, and they leave those trees up until February. They just can't let the Holidays go. They cling to them like some sort of last root before the whole ground gives way. They have the socks, the plates, the door wreaths, the scented candles, and the Holiday cheer to go along with it. These are the same people who start blasting Christmas music in their cars the second the summer officially ends. They are unrelenting. They are insufferable. Don't you just hate those people? ........................................
Why?
Why do you hate them? Why do you walk into a store in October and immediately have to comment about how they,
"ALREADY HAVE THE CHRISTMAS SHIT OUT"?
Why does this anger you so? Now -- I'm going to guess that the vast majority of people who complain about this sort of stuff don't REALLY put much emotional investment in it. It's more that we just all really enjoy the sound of our own voice complaining, and this is yet another opportunity to bask in our own self-righteousness.
Hell -- that is pretty much the entire content of my blog.
But for those who get really upset, and I mean reeeaallly and truly upset by people doing the Holidays "the wrong way" -- I just gotta know...WHY??? What is it about the act of celebrating a Holiday early, or "out of turn" that you find so morally reprehensible? Does it have some effect on how you are able to enjoy your own Holidays? Does it haunt your dreams? Do you fall asleep muttering
"But it's only October....it's only October...."
Do me a favor, and go ahead and watch this short news clip for me before we move on. You guys. I don't know if you know this but...life can be really REALLY shitty sometimes. I mean like so shitty that you question what the hell the universe or any benevolent higher power was thinking when they baked up this whole idea. When I watched that video, I bawled, like -- not like sweet glistening tears -- I ugly cried, with snot, because ....my God....how could you not be moved by that? But in case you are still unmoved, give this one a try.
I DEFY you to not sob like an infant after watching that. Yes -- these are the extreme examples -- but in truth -- and I am sorry to sound so glib ...We are ALL dying. What happened to those beautiful children is the definition of unfair. All the potential never realized, all of the life they will never get to live. These are the stories that gut us from the inside, and unite us as communities to acts of compassion and love. Life is ....so fragile ....so short....and sometimes....just.....so hard.
So what's my point?
My point is simply this....If putting up Christmas lights two months early makes someone happy then SO WHAT? If celebrating Halloween ALL year long makes someone happy then SO WHAT?? These things, these...trivial and menial things that bring a momentary smile to our faces, or distracts us from the shit storm that is life at times....why do we begrudge people these things? Truly, don't we have better things to worry about? Don't we all have people we could be loving better? Goals we could be working towards? Entire chocolate cakes we could be eating???And along those lines -- I know it will be easy for people to say that a child's dying wish is different from a basic white bitch who can't wait for the PSL to finally return at Starbucks....but you know what? We know jack shit about that BWB, or what her life really looks like. And honestly, even if her life has been one enchanted unicorn fart after another, why does her excitement over beverages even register on your radar?
So I say....If you want to put up a tree one month early, or leave it up the entire year, then do it! If you want to sing Christmas songs in July, DO IT!!! Do the things that make you HAPPY, that give your life JOY, that make you SMILE, or help you to cope with the hard stuff. Because the truth is that someday, you, I, and everyone who is currently living on this planet are all going to be gone, and within the span of a few generations, largely forgotten. 100s of years from now what will it have mattered if we celebrated Christmas for one day a year, or the ENTIRE year? It won't. I guess what I am saying is that....we only get one go at this. Some of us will get 80 years, and some of us don't make it 8 hours. There are no guarantees, no magic bullets, no negotiating, and no amount of money that will save you from what is coming for all of us.And knowing this, then why are some people so keen on dictating to others over such.......trivial and inconsequential things like Christmas Lights?!If it's not your thing, fine. But it is so......uncharitable to try and take away the little things that bring joy, to whatever extent, to others.That's it. That's my point. Once again it comes down to, Don't be a dick.This Holiday season, let's all try and remember that we are ALL family. We are all fragile hairless monkey's trying desperately to figure this whole life thing out. We are on this tiny spinning blueberry of horrors, and yet we have managed to carve out meaning and purpose from it all. We have found things that make us....happy....if only for a moment. Let's not rob one another of those moments yeah?Consider it your Christmas present to me.
Anxiety