empty underneath

I'm tired.

I'm tired of bing puked on by the Spirit-Of-Christmas-Eternal.

Tired of having exactly 7.5 minutes to revel in the contrived fuzzy feelings of Thanksgiving before it's time to rush headlong into the next holiday.

Tired of the pressure to find-the-perfect-gift because that's somehow a measure of my love for the people in my life.

Tired of MeMeMeMeMeMe.

Tired of stocking stuffers and Black Friday and 3-story yard ornaments and the talking box in the living room telling me that everyone is happy and joyful and all robed in crimson ya-yas.

My family checked out of the Christmas crazies years ago, and every year, as the beehive of humanity lights up ever brighter with the frenzy of the season, I am more and more glad we did it. But I've been relatively quiet about it until now, and while I know that a lot of you will not be interested to hear what I have to say, somebody out there needs to be speaking out about what I saw when I began to take a peek behind the glittered veil of Christmastide.

Okay, so here's the challenge. Every scrap of advertising we all see from 2 months before Thanksgiving until the day after New Year's tells us all about the joy of the Christmas season, about how happy we all are while buying stuff and coveting stuff and making our Christmas lists and hosting parties and shopping shopping shopping. Are we really that happy? Is this really what it's all about this season? So think about these things the next time you're out:

*At the grocery store, all those people shopping for holiday foods for parties and gatherings...count how many people you see that look happy. How many smile? How many are in good moods? Are you?

*In the parking lot, how many people are giving up their front-row parking spots for little old ladies? How many people are smiling? How many people aren't in a mad rush? How many are enjoying the weather?

*At the department store, how polite is everyone? How polite are you? Are you feeling the love here?

*At the post office, how many people are happy and chatty while standing in line? How many look at you and smile?

Okay, so for some perspective.

*At the grocery store, how many people are scowling? In a mad rush? Frustrated with and yelling at the kids on whom they'll be lavishing hundreds of dollars of gifts in just a few days?

*In the parking lot, how happy does the Sally Army bell-ringer look as 3/4 of the people pass by without giving a donation? How many people are cutting each other off and cutting in for the best parking spot? How many people leave their baskets for someone else to deal with?

*In the department store, how many people are dragging their precious children along, exhausted and stressed to the hilt, to buy the *perfect gift* for someone else? How many cashiers look bored stiff and utterly apathetic?

*At the post office, how many people are standing, impatient and bored at the same time, overladen with gaudy packages to send off to people who will hate what they recieve and look for the first chance to take them back to the store?

*Finally, at home. How much time have you spent looking for that perfect gift? How much money did you spend, and did you even have it to spend, and if you did, was it really worth it? Will your family love you more because you bought them some pretty thing? Is that the best measure of your love?

We spend a lot of energy on this holiday. We spend a lot of time rationalizing that it's the season of joy and of giving and of spending time together.

How much of that joy would be left if the Christmas tree was empty underneath?

--Teri.