reflections on the 2009 christmas season.

i feel our nation as a whole took a step in a right direction looking back on this christmas season. this is a step in a direction i never thought it would head back down so all in all i'm very happy with the way the holiday season has handled itself this year.

over the past few years christmas has entirely lost touch with what it has always supposed to stand for. peace and good will towards men have slowly gone out the window in my conscious life time and this is truly a sad sad thing. i've been growing upset with it and my holiday "cheer" has decreased steadily each year. last year was the worst. 3 people dead on black friday. wow. wheres the good will towards men? you want a toy or a sale that fucking bad that you are going to strip someone of their life to get it. a man was trampled by shoppers trying to get into a wal-mart to get the deal and two people shot each other at toys r us. wow. this was on top of my growing disgust towards the ever-lengthening christmas season. christmas music was on well before thanksgiving, and the grinch and rudolph both aired on television well before the thanksgiving holiday.

now come on. thanksgiving is a very important holiday. to me, it is the most important moral holiday all together. giving thanks for what you have in your life regardless of who's better off. it's about being happy and not worrying about material goods. and this country just said "nope. christmas."

this year, things were better though. i was happy to see, and very surprised, that nobody died on black friday this year. i was willing to bet the number would be between 2-4 people. and what more? no christmas specials prior to thanksgiving. and, like every year i emailed the radio station who's the "official home for the holidays" and i received a response from the director of programming, which you can read a few posts down.

christmas took a turn away from the commercially violent this year and was able to stand up for it's bullshit. i met some very nice people at work who were all about the season, i shared a lot of good times with family members. i felt the way you should feel on christmas. unfortunately the week of christmas i had an issue with a friend and on christmas day i came down with a terrible illness i am still recovering from. these two things aside, i am happy with the way this country and this area handled themselves the past month and a half and i hope they continue to take the right steps next year.



happy new year everyone.
jc.


currently listening to:
noah the whale -- first days of spring
lots and lots and lots of kevin devine with some splashes of country

time.

brand new once said "one week is a long time. one month is a long time. one year is a long time. god damn time takes its damn time."

but brand new also wrote daisy. so not everything they say is gospel.

time is an interesting phenomenon and people react to it in odd ways. people are always wishing for a different day. "i can't wait till summer!" is a common one. but take that right now. in the bottom half of fall. if you can't wait till summer and you are constantly looking forward to it, you are just letting your life cruise by. you aren't living for anything in the time frame you are in, you are constantly looking forward to the future instead of looking down at your feet in the day you are in. i mean, who knows, maybe something great might happen today? doubtful. but who knows?

i'm the exact opposite. i live in the past. always saying "man that was the best" or "i wish i could relive this day with that person." where is that getting me besides down the long road of sad and lonely? cause if you spend all your time looking back at great memories you once had, all you're doing is keeping yourself attached to things that are no longer attainable. i mean, you can try and relive them, but without the perfect circumstances it's damn near impossible to do so.

so what's the moral of the story? i hope it isn't something cliche like "live for the moment" but maybe it is? maybe we should be happy with the past but not dwell on it. maybe we should look forward to what's coming next but not rush it. maybe we should just try our damnedest to be happy. and i know i'm one to talk...i'm a miserable prat 75% of the time. but hey.


i'll leave you with some excerpts from david mcwane's "the gypsy mile"

The Boy, A Pretty Girl, and The Devil
"now laugh and tell him to go away."
whispered the Devil in the pretty girl's ear.
And she did.
"she has changed so much."
thought the boy as he walked back to his desk.

52 Cents
i dont always give the homeless man change.
Maybe that's how God works.

currently listening to: i dont want to let you go -- weezer