The Reason

Christmas time is here. Full of joy and cheer. After all, being inundated with Christmas everything, forces the cheer, or at least, the expectation of it. Cheer is a funny thing. It’s defined as a shout of encouragement, approval, congratulation, etc. So, this time of year means a lot of shouting encouraging words.  

“Hey, you are doing a good job at whatever you do with your time!”  

Though, if we all receive the same compliment, then aren’t we all equal and therefore nobody is doing better than anyone else? Therefore the worst worker and the best worker are essentially doing the same quality?  

Ouch.  

Instead of cheer, how about Merriment. Merriment is defined as gaiety and fun. OK, now this word I can get down with. To be Merry is to be fun, which improves life all around. If strong enough you have the power to turn a dull time of year into the magical one. You might be the one catalyst that takes a mundane office holiday season to a really special one. Maybe coworker in years to come will mention this year as “the one.” That one year was really great, "we just had so much fun."  

No Carol, you might not get credit for it, but you made the place better, the season brighter. Desiring attention for what YOU did takes away from the intent in the first place, right? 

The merriest part for some is the idea of the holiday season. The anticipation for this specific food, that game, a certain TV special, attempting to recapture that feeling, or at least the memory of it. The dopamine rushing to the brain now, she senses the cookies, the allowance to overindulge set forth by commercialized depictions of family get-togethers. Over consumption is the new diet during this holiday.  

Joy, love, peace, kindness, compassion, all other words thrown around. My guess is that over time the overindulgence reminded us of the basics others don’t have and therefore sparked a campaign of giving. Giving is great, but if done to satisfy your own discontentment and therefore used as collateral to feel better about self, versus the general act of kindness, it falls flat. The giving isn’t merriment but an obligation. 

So, what are we exactly looking for this holiday season? We are chasing the purple dragon, that elusive contentment. The peace that our mind knows exists yet all of our striving fails to achieve. 

"Maybe if I just….", knowing darn well you’ve done that before.  

“This year will be different.”  How? How exactly are the same behaviors, beliefs, actions going to be different this year versus any other year? Though I know at the moment of conception, the conviction is so strong, so powerful, that we feel as though we can WILL our way to victory. We know this to be false though. We cannot WILL contentment. We cannot give to others to satisfy ourselves. We cannot perform anything external to provide the peace and contentment we are looking for inside.  

Maybe, no, I better not… People may start to wonder. People may start to judge if I say it.  

Maybe this will do it?

But, maybe you need a new di…. I can’t even pretend something as superficial as what you eat will change your whole outlook on life. It may contribute, but not completely alter.  

Oh blast it, What about Jesus? What about looking to the one thing you may have known your whole life, but failed to rely on, give in to. Instead we continue to search for our own happiness, take control of our own ship, only to once again run it along the shore and realize we had no clue what we were doing. Just like our adult selves looking back on our childhood versions, we are mistaken and wish we knew then what we know now. In ten years we will say it again. In ten more again. 

This is what humans do. We mess up, make mistakes. Guide our energies down a misdirected path.  But what if, that contentment and love and peace and satisfaction and all the good you’ve been looking for has a place and it isn’t in you or anything you do, no matter how noble it may appear.  

The reason for Christmas is the birth of Jesus. What if, just what if, you remembering that and living to the words he gave us is the key to that contentment, even in the face of not having everything you’ve ever wanted? That’s right, content in the face of adversity. To be satisfied without the riches, to tolerate mediocrity?  

Maybe I am just talking to myself, thinking it through. What I know is this world ends, and there has to be a part of all of us that at the very least, wonders what is next, where does this all go? Honestly, if this world was as good as it gets, I would struggle to get out of bed in the morning. Everything a sale, everyday we’re on the brink of destruction. Every day, I either do not make enough, or I see those less fortunate and I am overly guilty for what I do have. I can talk to select people that reinforce the beliefs I have now, no matter how problematic, or, I could fess up, “I have no clue what I am doing here, I need help.”  The help I get may not be what I expect, but then again, What I do has hurt ME in the past too many times to count.  

Merry Christmas, God Bless.