Kids, Friends, Lovers, Loathers - I spoke too soon.
I should just derail this whole gift guide hoopla, pack up my box of $25 trinkets and go/stay home.
F*&% this holiday. (Or any family holiday that somehow requires that the adult population to just fall off the face of sanity and kindness.)
Lemme break it down fo ya.
The holidays bring a lot of people who don't normally live with each other into close proximity for a few days or, heaven help you, a week.
This creates conflict.
Somebody gossips.
Someone is too loud.
Someone is too drunk.
Someone makes a rude comment about how much money someone else makes.
Someone offers an olive branch only to shame the other party into not taking it.
Someone forgets to shut the bedroom doors and the cats get in and shred everything good and lovely.
Someone refuses to go to church.
Someone pitches a fit about who they sit next to at dinner.
Someone pouts about their ignorance of the inside joke.
Someone laments of not spending enough/too much on gifts.
Someone cries in front of everyone just to get attention or pity.
Someone gets fed up and storms off to sit in their car for an hour.
Someone burns the beans.
If you are ANY of these someones, and you are over the age of 12, get the f&$% out.
Don't feel special and think this is all directed at one person. We all have a bit of the aforementioned evil in us.
What makes people during these winter holidays so regressive? I remember growing up (past the Barbie stage, but before I could drive) that I hated the holidays. My family got so tense over travel, money, and family conflicts.
Now that I'm older I was optimistic that I'd have more control over the situation. That everyone would be an adult and we could require them to get along. That somehow people would stop worrying about travel, money and old wounds and just get. the. f&$%. along.
Hell no, reality. Hell no.
Now that I'm married and have another set of families to navigate, its just stickier and more riddled with conflict. Everyone is an adult in that they're used to getting their way. But no one is an adult in that their prepared to not get their way and just sacrifice some of their ideal to help make someone else's ideal happen.
You know, being giving and selfless... like what these holidays are all about?
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He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”Luke 10:27-37
