Christmas: A Commercial Success

"Give It Away" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers

...give it away give it away give it away now / give it away give it away give it away now...

I'm not going to lie to you.  I don't much care about Christmas.  I don't think much of holidays at all, except my birthday and New Year's.  I only like Christmas because I am to receive gifts.  

My family is Muslim and Mommy had us celebrate all the commercialized Christian holidays so we wouldn't feel any more alienated from our peers than we were by being foreign African Muslim kids.  It was a wonderful idea on her part but I didn't learn anything meaningful about the holidays that wasn't imparted throughout the rest of the year.

Selflessness, charity, compassion, special care for the poor, humility, unimportance of material things, respect (and probably more than that) were all themes that our upbringing was predicated on.  I remember wanting Kool-Aid, but not wanting to go through the hassle of making an entire pitcher.  I would get a big cup, fill it with water, maybe a 1/3 of the packet of Kool-Aid and an unnecessary amount of sugar, mix it together and let it sit in the fridge.

Usually, the Kool-Aid would get cold and I would get to it before my Mommy noticed.  On one occasion, she saw it in the fridge before I got to it.  She looked around for the pitcher of Kool-Aid and found none.  I came to get my cup and she blasted on me about making Kool-Aid just for myself "as if no one else lives here."

At the time, I thought the old lady was just buggin' because she didn't like me.  My mother and I always argued and I thought she was just being annoying.  She made such a big deal out of not showing concern for my brothers.  "How do you know they didn't want any Kool-Aid?  Now you've made that pack obsolete for anyone else to use."  She said some more stuff too but I can't remember.  All I heard was the voice of the teacher from Charlie Brown at that point.

With age, I have come to understand that she didn't want me to be selfish.  She wanted me to consider my siblings, my family.  She wanted me to always consider other people before myself.  Now, I believe I have utterly absorbed all of those lessons and characteristics into my behavioral lexicon.  I'm quite good at being compassionate, empathetic, generous, and selfless...sometimes to the deteriment of myself.

I don't mind however.  The African worldview I have finessed informs me that life is hard and my main purpose in life is to alleviate the stress of any person I encounter in any small way that I am able.

Therefore (forgive this long digression), holidays just don't mean anything to me.  I have been taught to have this "holiday cheer" and "spirit of giving" all year round.  And that good which is not already inherent in me, I force myself to display for the good of other people.  That's just how it should be.

So here I sit, watching Big Love, texting friends, reading, eating, generally relaxing, unencumbered by the commercial holiday that is Christmas.  I didn't buy any gifts and I didn't ask for any really.  I will give my gifts after the new year, God willing, to those people I love in subtle protest of the lack of humanity we live under yet makes an appearance for the last five weeks of the year, every year.

It's all just a crock.  I can't buy it and won't spend money buying any of it either.  Love and health are free and they are the most important things we have (or don't have...and you'll miss it when you don't got it).

...in my quest to live simply, live happily, in harmony with God and nature...