3 posts tagged “christmas”
I remember talking on the phone to my first serious girlfriend while I lay on the floor looking up at that tree. Then there were all the drunken moments where I gazed at it all blurry. It was there through a lot of happy and sad. Plus since I bring it out immediately after Thanksgiving dinner it's around through quite a few days of life.
I'm surprised the lights aren't dead or any of the fishing lines have snapped yet. When I moved across the country it was in the back seat the whole time. I didn't bring it out that Christmas because I was still moving, but it was with me. But it's out now and it was out last year, even though I wasn't at my home for Christmas. I think fondly of it as if it's been with me for a lifetime, it's odd to think it's only basically been six years.
Time to drag out the Christmas cheer ... and Christmas hooker hair!
Once you are an educated activist and are aware of what goes on in the world it's very hard to take gift giving holidays seriously. Television and all the stores are pushing Christmas heavily as usual. The QVC Shopping Channel has had non-stop Christmas gift shows since late October. I watch QVC and read the sale papers during this time of year and have a great deal of disgust forming. I find the people who call in about products on QVC the most intriguing. They remind me of your every day person. These are people who live to shop. Their world's stability is based on how many nice things they surround themselves with. This sickens me.
A silver table setting (forks, knives, spoons, etc.) that will "last forever" was being sold for about $100. The callers were just going crazy over it. Apparently it really will last forever. They went on about how nice it is to have such beautiful pieces to eat with. All these people are so concerned about the appearance of their homes. Americans and anyone in the higher up nations of this world are so concerned with the nice things. I imagine Americans are the worst since it is the land of selfish greed.
How can they eat from their heavy red wood tables, in their completely furnished dining rooms, off of their best dishes with their $100 silver table setting? Knowing that in Iraq it's all dusty and good people's homes are falling to pieces because of a war that we brought to them. Knowing that in Africa there is a famished child sitting by a dirty pool of water contemplating a drink. Even just knowing that while you eat off your expensive stuff, there is a man in every city in our own country who will be celebrating the holidays in a gutter with a bottle of booze; God willing, a bottle of booze. How do these people with so many things live with themselves? It must be so easy for the average person to ignore reality. Perhaps it is not easy. Maybe it is hard and that is why they have to keep going out to the mall and buying more.
I am not saying we should toss out every luxury we have just because other people don't have it. We have worked hard for what we buy after all, in most cases. I have what I need. I have a table to eat at and I have nice plates to eat off of. But for everything I have given myself, I think I have done very well at giving others too. If I ever bought myself a $100 silver set I would have to have another $100 to give to a charity or someone who is really down on their luck. If I was rich I would make sure that I was financially secure for the rest of my life, possibly save some for my children, but the rest of my income would go directly to other people everywhere. When I hear a celebrity has more than a million dollars just kind of sitting around I want to smack their fingers. What do they need more than a million dollars for? What do they need more than five? Why do billionaires keep their billions? This makes little sense to me after I meet all the people who could use some of that.
I wish the people who prettied up their homes so richly would dull it down a notch so they could feel a little more connected to the world. Each Christmas people go into debt buying gifts for people they love, hate, are annoyed by and co-workers they never even met. I know people who take out bank loans to make Christmas full of gifts. But gifts of what? Music, movies, toys, gadgets and things people will hardly use. Thousands of dollars are spent on things people do not want or need. We could help our fellow Americans or our fellow humans around the globe with all that money. We could fix some stuff that really needs fixing. Instead a few thousand dollars goes into trinkets that may end up stored in the attic or the garage by next Christmas.
So buy one or two things for the people you know and love. But geeze, don't waste your money and if it's burning a hole in your pocket then find a charity or a person and give them the money. There's few better gifts than the gift of a pile of money. Remember that.
Some of my favorite charities are listed below as good suggestions.
