Dear List
Every year about a few days before Christmas we are bombarded with messages to remember the "real meaning of Christmas" and to turn our hearts from crass commercialism to the spirit of love, reconciliation and forgiveness that Christmas in the form of the Christ Child is supposed to convey.
I will make my Christmas address at the proper time, however this note, sent out at the start of the month is to remind you all that it is coming and to tell you early enough so that you can frame your mind and do something about it and not get bound up in the whole rush and jumble of the thing, and then a day or two before you suddenly remember that this is the time you are supposed to have fun and it's AAAAAAAKKKKKKK!!!!! I'm out of time.
We are now a week out from Thanksgiving and our stomachs have subsided as has I hope the pile of leftovers, and we can take a moment before we launch into the next big orgy of celebration.
My message today is for YOU and for no one else but YOU and is to remember to take time throughout this holiday season to save to time in which to ENJOY YOURSELF and enjoy life with your loved ones, friends, and those around you. Thanksgiving is the beginning for the long bleak winter season and Christmas is the winding up of the preparations. New Years and it's festivities is the last "flipping of the bird" at mother nature to try and do her level best to kill us with cold and dark and privation. Luckily we are no longer in such dire danger as we once were. However all too often in the rush of the season and the wonderful, delightful hecticness of shopping and spending, working and preparation, we forget to ENJOY these precious moments when we can be motivated by and bask ourselves in happy thoughts and pleasant reflection and anticipation. So from time to time have a piece of pie and a cup of hot tea, a bit of chocolate and coffee, and a piece of fruit cake well marinated in 100 proof to remind us of how wonderful the pure SENSORY and tactile pleasures of the season. The smell of the pines, the yowl of kids gleefully tearing open their presents and how they will go positively wild (again) this year, as they did last year. Smell the pines on the Christmas tree lot, hunker deeper into your parka when the cold comes, and sit by the window when the snow falls and ponder the mysteries of nature. Remember friends and family long gone and friends and family you will soon see and resolve to make this Christmas again the best ever and to indulge, I say overwhelmingly and hedonistically indulge in the simple good things that we can enjoy and give life it's flavor and savor.
So plan ahead and keep former in your mind the less on of Ebenezer Scrooge.
Remember that the whole Christmas Carol is about him, and the whole story, with the visit of the three mysterious strangers in the night is not to reprove him for his thrift and parsimony, or to berate him for his unfriendliness and sociability to his fellow man. It would be a poor story if that were what it was. No, it is for Scrooge himself that the three spirits do what they did, it is for him who year after year cuts himself off from the joy and spirit of Christmas, and makes it for HIM, for Scrooge, a low, mean, and shabby event. It is Scrooges lack of joy for which they come and for which they are concerned, that he himself if preventing himself from enjoying everything about Christmas. Take heart and remember this and remember to think wonderful thoughts, and to create castles in the air, and like children again look for the tree, the trimmings, the dinner, and the warm glow of friends and family all "safely gathered in ere the winter storms begin."
Remember to enjoy yourself and enjoy life this Christmas season.
Otto