I'll be completely upfront from the start and say that I've grown to dislike Christmas immensely, and for good reason. I find it hard to justify a short period of time, that completely ignores what it's there for, the celebration of a child borne into a world full of oppression, poverty and human degradation.
I'm no Christian, and like most of the stories in the Bible fantasy and fiction has come to the fore. Even if you possess a little bit of imagination, it's somewhat hard to swallow three extremely wealthy Kings going on a very long journey in complete harmony to deliver riches beyond the wildest dreams of a poor carpenter and his wife. I've no desire to belittle, or mock, a story that many believe in, but in this day and age the message originally intended has been lost in the ancient mists of time. It's now been replaced by something that's considerably worse, hypocrisy.
Don't misunderstand me, as a child I had some wonderful Christmas times. Through the eyes of a child Christmas is full of magic and unexplained events, fuelled by the preposterous nature of a gaudy celebration that has long promoted equal amounts of joy and disappointment in the mind of a child. And whilst I may have experienced the material wealth of Christmas, I have equally felt the bitterness of a poverty driven Christmas.
Nor have I ever forgotten the guilt laden trips surrounding that traditional absurdity of sending out cards to people we've conveniently forgotten for the entire year, but feel compelled to remember them at Christmas. I've never particular understood for the life of me why we should remember someone once a year, if we can't be bothered to remember them the other 364 days of the year. I've personally asked that no-one sends me a card, simply to ease their conscience. I find it somewhat insulting that I'm so unmemorable for 99.9% of the time. And yes, my particular stand on this has upset many people, but the hypocrisy annoys me far more.
Of course, one of the great joys of a non-Christmas is that it's brutally honest and I don't have to fulfil any unwarranted expectations, that are never fulfilled, or impossible to fulfil on the day. Nor do I feel lonely or in need of company over the Christmas period, I'm far more content with my own space at this time of year, wandering around the house in a pair of old shorts, t-shirt and barefeet; lunch is a perfectly happy sandwich and a cup of coffee. Even though I've happily partaken in, endured for family unity and duped my own children over the marvels of flashing lights, baubles, presents, mountains of food and excess, I've never missed the ridiculous frivolity and absurdity of it all.
But many do, most I suspect due to the mythology that exists around 'Chrimbo'. We have always been led to believe that by celebrating Xmas, we are celebrating the birth of a new beginning, that coupled with New Years Eve the year ahead will bring us both hope and the start of something new. But will it? The answer to that is, extremely sadly, no. The reason that nothing is likely to change is because we are humans, and as humans we are as capable of the great acts of humanity as we are of continuing and appalling behaviour. Yet we persist in celebrating this ridiculous absurdity, largely because we can look each other in the eye and for a very brief moment be 'nice' to each other. In that I find the worst aspects of hypocrisy.
I feel no sadness for having letting another Xmas happily pass me by. I have chosen to ignore it because it is the right and honourable decision to take. And although one should 'never say no' to taking part in such a tradition, I can't find any real justification for doing so in the future ahead of me. If people cannot see beyond the shininess of tinsel, the glittering baubles, the bloated stomach and the lightheaded brain, all sucked in by the miraculous nature of materialism and unremitting vengeful nature of capitalism, that is for them and their conscience. For me, providing the weather is in my favour, a stroll along the empty river bank and complete solitude amongst Mother Nature's more preferable specimens will do quite nicely. At least it's closer to the original story.
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