Two-thirds
of the way through the corporately homogenized *HalloThankMas season: a veritable blur of consumerism on steroids, appeals to greed and gadgets
as the keys to happiness.
It can be . . . maddening, depressing, frustrating and leave your soul black and blue. And if you watched TV news coverage of "Black Friday" -- and mobs lined up to scrum through the doors for a bargain on electronics, toys and whatever else will not survive the first week of January as a source of visceral joy -- you know this "happiest of seasons" can leave you physically black and blue, too.
Or bleeding, in the hospital, with a bullet in your gullet.
Still, I refuse to surrender Christmas to commercialism in my heart. And, that's where the message, and person of
the season should live, thrive and be honored . . . if we do that, it
should gush out of us in patience, understanding, love and generosity of
spirit, action and thought.
It should; but that, my friends, is
entirely up to us.
*HalloThankMas: OK, I made it up. Musing over how goblins, turkeys, elves and Santa seemed to have merged into one, months-long orgy of spending and partying, I even suggested just coming with with a suitable mascot . . . perhaps a vampire turkey in a red suit.
