Yesterday - two days before Christmas - as I went around to a couple of stores food-shopping, I couldn't help but notice how desperately unhappy everybody looked.
At Safeway, for example, the parking lot was absolutely chokker, so you had to go around & around waiting for someone to leave. Inside: relentless fluorescence; aisles of way-too-much and-way-too-many-choices; high prices on everything; masses of "Xmasy" stuff - all the extra decos and elements one is supposed to have to make the family Christmas dinner the Dinner of All Dinners. Masses of people pushing carts, trying to get down an aisle and all looking so stressed and pressed and miserable.
But everyone was pushing away.
Pushing through traffic. Pushing to get a parking spot. Pushing around the carts. Standing in long lineups to pay and finally get out of there. All the while, "I'll Be Home For Christmas" is grinding away in the background sound track.
Lugging stuff to the car. More pushing in traffic to get to the next place, and the next. Need this, need that, gotta have it all. Christmas has to be perfect or........
You read articles during December on "how to manage stress at Christmas" - TV shows on ways to pace yourself so you can "get through it." Lots of serious talk about how awful Christmas is for many people, how to manage your budget around gifting, and how to navigate the family dynamics, oy. So much stress around this holiday of "love."
People were putting so much energy into getting all this stuff done and so much money into it. Millions of people worldwide pushing and shopping to create this one-day event. The day when all your love is on the line with everyone you care about - plus gifting the postman, your hair stylist, the kids' teachers, the cleaning lady, your building manager.
No pressure there........
As I saw all these grim-faced people, so determined, and pushing themselves to get through their To Do list and for the best of intentions ... I thought, wow, if only the money spent on "Xmas" and the collective energy that goes into trying to create that perfect day for individual families could be re-directed towards world peace, what a different world this would be.
It would indeed be Good News, a joy to the world, and I'm sure Jesus would approve.
At Safeway, for example, the parking lot was absolutely chokker, so you had to go around & around waiting for someone to leave. Inside: relentless fluorescence; aisles of way-too-much and-way-too-many-choices; high prices on everything; masses of "Xmasy" stuff - all the extra decos and elements one is supposed to have to make the family Christmas dinner the Dinner of All Dinners. Masses of people pushing carts, trying to get down an aisle and all looking so stressed and pressed and miserable.
But everyone was pushing away.
Pushing through traffic. Pushing to get a parking spot. Pushing around the carts. Standing in long lineups to pay and finally get out of there. All the while, "I'll Be Home For Christmas" is grinding away in the background sound track.
Lugging stuff to the car. More pushing in traffic to get to the next place, and the next. Need this, need that, gotta have it all. Christmas has to be perfect or........
You read articles during December on "how to manage stress at Christmas" - TV shows on ways to pace yourself so you can "get through it." Lots of serious talk about how awful Christmas is for many people, how to manage your budget around gifting, and how to navigate the family dynamics, oy. So much stress around this holiday of "love."
People were putting so much energy into getting all this stuff done and so much money into it. Millions of people worldwide pushing and shopping to create this one-day event. The day when all your love is on the line with everyone you care about - plus gifting the postman, your hair stylist, the kids' teachers, the cleaning lady, your building manager.
No pressure there........
As I saw all these grim-faced people, so determined, and pushing themselves to get through their To Do list and for the best of intentions ... I thought, wow, if only the money spent on "Xmas" and the collective energy that goes into trying to create that perfect day for individual families could be re-directed towards world peace, what a different world this would be.
It would indeed be Good News, a joy to the world, and I'm sure Jesus would approve.
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