Everybody's saying it.
"It's that time of year again." "Yay, the holidays are here!" "Bah! Humbug!"
Whatever your personal reaction to it, everybody knows when the end of the year holidays are here. Well, everyone with a calendar anyway. Or a sundial. Or a star chart.
But before I tell you that there's really nothing special about this time of year, and hear the chorus of discord that the statement brings upon me, consider this.
Meaning is a very powerful concept. Something can mean nothing to someone and everything to someone else. Something else can mean a great deal to many and nothing to the rest of us.
What's the point? Is it all relative, then, and there's really no reason for the season?
I could talk more about that, and maybe I will later. But no, the point here is that while some things do mean a great deal universally, to each and every one of us, this time of year, this season, may not be one of them.
I mean no respect to Dickens, no, quite the contrary. I think his point is missed by many and misunderstood by many more. Scrooge wasn't just a holiday character, he was a mirror for humanity.
We all have to try to be better. Not that other person across the way. It's not their fault you aren't a better person. Nothing they do is going to in any way affect in the slightest the kind of person you are. They have nothing to do with it.
I mean, think about if they did. Do you know what kind of social climbing structure that would engender?
"Hey, you, I just made you a better person, that earns me more social points than you because I'm the one making you better."
Think on that for a second. Yeah, that's a pretty crappy world, mostly because the opposite would have to be true for it all to mean anything anyway. In other words, if I can make you a better person, then I can also make you a worse person.
No, I think I'll stick with things as they are. We can decide to work together to be better, and that works out just fine. But if you aren't going to do the work, then that's on you.
So remember, this season is about what you put into it. It is what you want it to be. And not just this season, either. The day after it, too.
D.G.
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