Ghost of Christmas Past
Well, well, well...here I am. Different computer, same layout that I thought I would never see again, and CERTAINLY never be writing in again. But after talking to a friend, and reading some of what she has had to say, I feel compelled to write something.
Christmas is the so-called "season of love/season of giving/most wonderful time of the year"...
But it also comes with the highest suicide rate. People who feel more alone now and fall into deeper bouts of depression than at any other point in the year. And while some of us are stuffing our faces with fruitcake and Chinese, thinking about the hundreds of dollars that were just shelled out on their behalf and not giving a thought about the rest of the world outside of their small nuclear units, the true meaning of this holiday is lost. It isn't about giving OR receiving, and especially not about the birth of Jesus anymore, that was totally lost when we stopped allowing religious based songs on the radio and instead have to hear Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby" fourteen times a day...
Instead, the true spirit of Christmas I think is love. It's appreciation. And most people aren't creative enough to say thank you for all that you do outside of a fifty dollar gift certificate to Best Buy, which also strangely enough says "Look at how much money I have". So with this in mind, I gave to my parents the best gift I could think of this year, the thing that is most valuable to me, rather than what society has deemed the most valuable with a price tag: my time. Time with my family, rather than away from them, as I seem to do be 95% of the time. And to me, there is no better way of saying "Thank you for all that you do" by giving to them what is most important to you, rather than what is easiest and makes you look high and mighty.
Well, there is me on my biased soapbox. I hope anyone and everyone that reads this has had a Christmas filled with love; after all....you're not alone.
Christmas is the so-called "season of love/season of giving/most wonderful time of the year"...
But it also comes with the highest suicide rate. People who feel more alone now and fall into deeper bouts of depression than at any other point in the year. And while some of us are stuffing our faces with fruitcake and Chinese, thinking about the hundreds of dollars that were just shelled out on their behalf and not giving a thought about the rest of the world outside of their small nuclear units, the true meaning of this holiday is lost. It isn't about giving OR receiving, and especially not about the birth of Jesus anymore, that was totally lost when we stopped allowing religious based songs on the radio and instead have to hear Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby" fourteen times a day...
Instead, the true spirit of Christmas I think is love. It's appreciation. And most people aren't creative enough to say thank you for all that you do outside of a fifty dollar gift certificate to Best Buy, which also strangely enough says "Look at how much money I have". So with this in mind, I gave to my parents the best gift I could think of this year, the thing that is most valuable to me, rather than what society has deemed the most valuable with a price tag: my time. Time with my family, rather than away from them, as I seem to do be 95% of the time. And to me, there is no better way of saying "Thank you for all that you do" by giving to them what is most important to you, rather than what is easiest and makes you look high and mighty.
Well, there is me on my biased soapbox. I hope anyone and everyone that reads this has had a Christmas filled with love; after all....you're not alone.