My Christmas Wish For 2011

(Please note: the following blog was originally posted on my old blog Why Yes I Am Quite Random, Why Do You Ask?, a blog I can no longer access for some unknown reason. This is being put at the start of each blog I'm uploading, in case anyone comes across the blog and accuses me of plagiarism. This is explained further in my introduction blog.

The following was originally posted on Sunday, December 25th, 2011 at 2:49 pm)

Well, Christmas time is upon us again. I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like the time goes by so fast that it's almost always Christmas again. Though, I feel Christmas is better when you're a kid, anyway. So full of wonder, still believing in Santa, never quite knowing what to expect in the way of gifts. And back then is when it seemed to drag on. The lead-up to Christmas, I mean. Once you're on school holidays, no amount of video games, TV, playing outside will kill enough time to get you closer to Christmas. And yet the next day, it all goes back to normal, regardless of whether or not you still have your tree up.

But as you get older, you learn to appreciate a lot more than the gifts. Oh sure, they're nice, especially the true surprises, but you find a different magic than what your parents have said of Santa's magic. Or rather, you find out that it really IS their magic, because of all the effort that gets put into it each and every year. As we get older and have kids of our own, our parents have grandchildren to dote on and keep the Santa story alive with. But there's also gift-wrapping (especially if you're someone like me, who is terrible at such a thing), lunch/dinner preparations (or both), not to mention the hours of shopping that goes into all this, especially if it's eleventh hour (though I've never really been big on that. I mean, we know exactly which date it's coming so shouldn't we be planning ahead? Though I admit I go a little overboard in being prepared, often scouting for gifts and such around the last week of October). And like I said, after a day or two, it's all over. All this preparation for one day of the year that will quickly be forgotten until we do it all over again in the next year and the year after. I'm surprised that there aren't many reports of people just going nuts at the sheer thought of it. So, before moving on to my next paragraph, I'd like to thank all the parents of the world for everything they do every Christmas, every tree decorated, every gift bought, all the driving they do, just for one day of the year. I can't imagine how you all do it but that's a magic we need to harness, perhaps the truest magic of all: the willpower to do what must be done regardless of the outcome.

I have to be completely honest, I'm not the biggest fan of Christmas. I'm no Scrooge, buying presents and being helpful are two things that bring me joy in life, but I think it really comes to down to the crushing blow of reality. What I mean is, virtually all year round, humans aren't exactly saints and paragons of virtue. OK, we can't be perfect (and I don't believe perfection exists in subjective fields but I digress), but you have to admit we could be better than we are now. It almost seems like some news stories are the result of some people thinking “We could out-do others in sheer bastardry/stupidity!” and they do. It's like one big pissing contest to see who can force humanity down into a pit of darkness the most. And the crushing blow comes in when I hope against hope that each Christmas, that people think for just one day, “You know, today I think I'll not be a total asshat and try acting with grace and civility”. This is not a commentary on the whole of humanity, I acknowledge that there are huge quantities of extremely decent people and to those people, I say keep at it, you are the people that keep us from sinking into the aforementioned pit of darkness. Even the smallest acts of kindness are all the world needs sometimes, just to remind us we have the capacity for good. But sometimes I don't know if I'm hopeless for wanting people to stop being stupid for just a little while or an idiot for not seeing the good around me. I guess I'm used to the bad that I'm almost blind to the good.

So, that leads me to wonder, what is my Christmas wish then? I can't exactly wish for world peace for just one day so we know what it's like, because how do I know that won't lead to extreme measures to get that feeling back? A lot of us become so obsessed once we have a small taste of something that we lose sight of everything but the goal.

I do have a thing or two I wish for Christmas but those are purely for me, so I have to work at that (and work I will).

No, I have it. You know what I wish upon the world for Christmas? That for one day, Death takes a holiday. I make no pun, how about for one day, everybody is spared so we can spend the day in the warmth of our loved ones. Now, I know there are people who prefer the embrace of Death, be they depressed or suffering from an illness that is taking their very life from them. Well, for them, I wish them relief, even for just one day, for what ails them. Just one twenty-four hour period where there is no pain or death. I know this sounds like world peace in a respect, but I acknowledge that crime will still be committed and fights may still occur, I just mean everyone should just have one day where they say “Screw everything that's happening in my life, I'm going to be happy and comfortable in the arms of the people I love.

And you know what? I'm not limiting that to people who celebrate Christmas either. If you celebrate anything like Hanukkah, Tet, Kwanzaa, or if you don't celebrate anything, I still wish that upon you. Doesn't matter what walk of life you're from, it's something we all deserve.

So, in closing, all I have to say is: Happy Holidays, and stay safe. Thank you all.