My take on, shall we say, this time of year?

It's cold, damned cold.  Depression skyrockets (a rather amusing thing to see downs go up), as does suicide, stress...  Why?

Societal pressures to give the best gifts, the hottest toys, blah blah blah...  Yeah, that, and it's, like, dark, yo.  The shortening of days and the weakening of the sunlight messes with our internal clocks, makes it more difficult to produce and/or use certain vitamins and minerals.  The "winter blues", yes?  We get sick just a bit easier.  Those with little or no means die from the cold.  Food is technically more scarce, but you wouldn't know that from the grocery aisle.  A large part of the natural world goes dormant for long winter's nap.  It happens every year, though... EVERY YEAR!  Why people don't get used to it and have to kill themselves, I have no idea.  Why not last year?  Why not next?

This year, I've spent too much money and I'm only getting gifts for my own children, sorry to everyone else.  Yeah, sorry, because I feel compelled to get gifts for everyone.  Yeah, I'm programmed to feel that way, but also I really enjoy giving things to people I think they will enjoy.  I like to see people happy for some strange reason, and, being a greedy human, I like to know that that drop of sunshine came from yours truly.  I get off on it.

What I do not like is the unspoken rule that gift giving is done on this day or that, for this occasion or the other.  I like to gift when I like to gift.  I have money today but not tomorrow so today you get a present.  I buy things for my kids all the time.  Why I am compelled to take food out of my own mouth (but not theirs) in order to inundate them with yet more clutter of material possessions, I don't know.  Trying to bottle lightning and give them some of that joy and magic I felt as a child, I guess.

But I am sick and tired of my childhood and my memories and my wants and dreams and desires being victimized by a cold, corporate enterprise bent on draining me of every last penny and chaining me to all sorts of new and interesting ways to be indebted to a faceless entity beyond my natural life!  I am sick of crazy psychopaths fist fighting over Elmo!  I am sick of the desperate need in my own heart to take part in this annual glut of greed, debauchery, and worship of Almighty Dollar! 

I am also sick of that "Reason for the Season" crap.  JESUS WAS BORN IN THE SPRING, DAMMIT!  Don't get me wrong, Jesus was a neat guy and I'd like to go drinking with him sometime, but Christ's Mass was moved to coincide with a preexisting annual festival just like every other Christian holi(holy)day!

This is all random, but I don't care...

All of us have lost something or someone.
We used to do "Mom's side", "Dad's side".  Well, only my mother's sister is on speaking terms with us and we don't really get together with them anymore.  There is no longer a "Mom's side".  "Dad's side" now only consists of his parents, and they come over instead of the other way around.  Now that the wife and I are calling it quits, I don't need to see my in-laws particularly badly.  Yeah, a big part of Christmas for me is dead, literally or otherwise.  There are some things that will change, not always for the better, without fail and, seemingly, without remorse.  The wheel of time, or somesuch poetic shite.  I do long for a simpler time, when money was an alien concept and all that mattered was my presents, even if only in my own mind, were cooler than my brother's.  I got to see the whole family, not all at once, and eat all sorts of great food and play in the snow...

What sort of world are we leaving for our children, at least those of us who have or are inclined to have them?  A fucking terrible one, at the moment.  The beauty part is that everything changes and not always for the worst.  Sometimes things do get better, if enough of us want them to badly enough.

The powers that be got that way by greed and by greed they will not relinquish that power easily.  Yeah, Internet shopping takes away some from the holiday experience, but it also enables the little guy just as much chance to move his wares as Wal-Mart has.  Indeed, a better chance if the little guy is offering niche items to a specific crowd who will look for those sorts of things (Cthulhu-what?).  Try finding a Lovecraft book in your local, small-town library or a plush Nyarlathotep at Target.  Try finding the new CoC silent film at Wal-Mart or its dotcom.  The Internet is revolution waiting to happen.  YouTube stars and MySpace icons whose fame and popularity might occasionally rival those whose names people walk on every day.  Evidence that self-governance is not only a possibility, it is the *only* possibility seen every day on sites like Ebay.  Internet every day becomes more and more to more and more and that is a Good Thing, my brothers and sisters.  It is a *very* Good Thing. (support FOSS!)

They say the world is a different place than our parents grew up in, but that is only a half-truth.  Yes, things change from generation to generation, but that is inevitable and usually good.  But people point out the horrors of life:  rape, incest, pedophilia, child abuse, child killers and killees.  The alarmists say "Look!  Look!  Look what today's society hath wrought!"  But no!  What today's society has done is strip away the shame from the victims and turn an investigative eye upon the world.  Victims speak up with less fear now, and sometimes people actually *believe* them.  We admit to the terrible things we have done or have been done to us.  Its okay to be gay, at least to the extent that people do not get married and have kids and die inside all to keep their "dirty secret".  Sometimes marriage doesn't work, but people no longer feel trapped by society and family and tradition and don't have to spend their miserable lives together.  "Broken homes" are things of the past, thank god.  Yeah, it would be nice and perfect and pretty if you could find your soulmate and have perfect children with a perfect home and a perfect life but sometimes, just sometimes, LIFE ISN'T PERFECT!  So deal!  Change something... 

I like peanut butter.

I have this vision of the world, this clear and beautiful dream that others have shared and longed for as desperately as I.  I have a Message.  Yes, this world is messed up nearly as badly as We, the People, are.  Doesn't have to be, baby.  Doesn't have to be.

We hold onto the past and live in it, wallow in it, and nevermind tomorrow when the bills come.  Play today and pay never, right?  It works, if only for a little while.  But we all have to pay the piper, have to reap what we've sown.  I am trying, god, oh god so desperately trying, to help people see that this world can be wonderful.  Help people see that every day, every moment, is a miracle.  That we should be grateful.  That we should fall to our knees and say "Thank you" all day every day for all the blessings we've been given.  Don't want to thank God?  Or god?  Or gods?  Or Fate?  Don't.  Just say "Thank you".  Show Universe that you don't take yourself for granted.  Or your world.  Or your friends and family and lovers.

Dammit, it *is* A Wonderful Life!  IT IS!  If you refuse to acknowledge how lucky we stupid, stupid humans are to exist; if you choose to ignore your blessings and turn a blind eye to the miracle of life; if you, by your stubborn insistence that you are powerless, help this world to stagnate and die...  I just want to say that I'm sorry.  I am sorry the world has been cruel to you.  I'm sorry I haven't been there for you.  I'm sorry that the pain in your eyes blinds them to love, to life, to hope.  I am so, so sorry that the cruelty of humanity was so pervasive and constant that the only escape was death.  I am sorry.

But it is never too late until it is too late.  We can leave a better world to our children and children's children, or our friend's children, if you prefer.  We can start today.

Remember:  The *only* person in the entire world with the power to change it is you.