LEAVE IT TO PEEVER

Tis The Season

-Bumper sticker of the week: If going to church makes you a Christian, does going into a garage make you a car?

-Christmas Quote: “Probably the reason we all go so haywire at Christmas time with the endless unrestrained and often silly buying of gifts is that we don’t quite know how to put our love into words.” Harlan Miller

-On being naughty or nice: Let’s be naughty and save Santa the trip.

-Signs you’re having a bad holiday season:

* You’re sending suicide notes with all your cards.

* They had an office party and you weren’t invited.

* The tinsel short circuited your pace maker.

* Nearly everyone bought you cologne.

* The others bought you toothpaste.

* You got caught having an improper relationship with the inflatable Santa on the lawn.

* You should never have served venison for Christmas dinner.

* You got caught photocopying the secretaries butt on the copy machine at the office party.

* This awful smell is coming from your chimney.

–My Christmas list:

* Please, no personal checks.

* How about bringing home the troops?

* I’d really like to have an inflatable President. One that doesn’t lie and you can deflate if necessary.

* Dear Santa: I think all Americans should have equal, accessible health-care.

* I have a Christmas wish that the U.S. can somehow regain its credibility around the world.

* I’d love to get someone in the White House that I don’t have to write about every week.

* And finally, how about an iPod and Bose portable speaker? I’m not all that idealistic. There are times you have to be practical and selfish.

-The Christmas mood: I’m always a little ambivalent about Christmas. I don’t have any bad memories of Christmas past, I think it is just all the commercialization. I recently read the early Roman merchants complained about slow holiday seasons. Seems the bottom line has always relied on good Christmas sales. It always comes to my consciousness that perhaps Christmas was made up to support the economy, rather than to celebrate the birth of Christ. I suppose it really doesn’t matter. The story, fiction or non-fiction, is still a great one. Christmas is the time for giving. GIVING. You give in proportion to what you can afford. A rich person giving a million dollars is no more admirable than a poor person giving a dollar. The point is to give with no intention of receiving. And it should be until you can feel it, not just your pocket change. PEACE is another yuletide word thrown around a lot. This year, it will just be a wish. Maybe we need to concentrate on inner peace, or peace with our family, or neighbors. What a Christmas it would be, if all of us made a commitment to remain physically and verbally non-violent. That would set the stage for a more loving world. Ah, LOVE. Another word tossed around a lot at Christmas. To love and be loved. A hard word to define. Love is a personal word. It derives its meaning from your heart. It is a mystery word. You can feel it, you know when it’s around, but you can’t box it up and put it under the tree. Christmas gives us opportunities to experience and work at things that we put off, or don’t normally think about. Giving, peace, love, community, sharing. I guess I’m ambivalent about Christmas because I don’t do near enough in any of these areas. Because I don’t think about them enough. I never feel that I ever quite get to the heart of the story. I play it safe.

-So, to those of you who celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a good one. I hope you find a way to give something, however small it may be. I hope, for at least a fleeting moment, you can find some peace with yourself. And I hope love, unrelenting and unrestrained, fills your heart.