Christmas is a Lie...

...Don't tell it to yourself.

I'm in the middle of writing my second book; tiredness, anxiety and vulnerability are making me blurt out 'Why would they...?'
Why would people walk round the Meare, which is looking bleak and frozen and exceptionally pretty under its sky? Why would people go to works/family/church, etc, parties? Why would anyone go to a pantomime/TheNutcracker/Midnight Mass? Why would anyone make a sleeping dachshund out of marzipan?
And what are they smiling at?

One semi-serious why: why no Christmas advertising campaigns aimed at the single? Single occupancy households are in the majority. Haven't the manufacturers ever heard of capitalism?
No. The single you see in an advert is always a depressed male, the easy prey of either a visit from the Salvation Army or relatives (surprise!) from an opposite hemisphere. You will see the disappointment in spite of himself. Now he can't stay in his pyjamas all day, eat sage and onion stuffing with marmite gravy and watch Cirque de Soleil while having a wank for baby Jesus.

Scrooge had it almost right before he went to the bad/good. He kept Christmas in his own way, staying away from the alcohol-fuelled, debt-and-obesity inducing, untested bonhomie. He went on as normal - his normal.
There was one thing only the Spirits needed to change.
That Scrooge never helped others.

Helping others is what made him happy. And that's a year-round thing.

#christmas #single #altruism #generosity #selflessness #gratitude #kindness #thoughtforothers

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