Christmas is tricky. What gifts should I buy for these 17 people? Oh, I’m married so what gifts should WE buy for these 17 people? Plus these eleventy people on your side? Now how are we gonna make Christmas work… how many days can each of us afford to be away from work… who’s going to be “in town” for Christmas… which parts of which days do we spend with which family? Oh, looks like the weather is going to be shit, guess that changes things…
A total shit show. Every year. Never fails.
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But consider the alternative. Over the past year I’ve had the opportunity to interact with a lot of strangers in my own town. Even in a nice neighborhood in a nice part of a nice town in a nice state, there’s a startling number of people who have no one. No one to shovel their sidewalk. No one to grab the mail. No one to call if there’s an emergency, no one to share news with - good or bad. No one to help them up if they fall out of bed. No one to check if they’ve got food or taken their meds or bathed or paid bills. No one to notice that they’ve departed this earth.
Take the time in the holiday chaos to acknowledge that the frenzy is the result of an abundance of meaningful - if imperfect, fragile, temporary, and incalculably valuable - relationships. The calamity is a feature, not a bug. Don’t worry, You’ll have plenty of time to be left alone - but it may come precisely at a stage in life when you can least afford it and it’s too late to do anything about it.
Hug someone this weekend.
Merry Christmas
