Commentary

The Holiday Dispirit

Reading the news these days is like playing reverse mumblety peg where the object is to stab all of your fingers rather than miss them. If it is not 70-year-old brokerage firms ruining your financial life, it is 70-year-old friends you played bocce with in Palm Beach. Each day there is more bad news -- from earnings shortfalls to layoffs to union workers who think forcing you into bankruptcy is a good strategy to ensure their jobs.

All this makes it remarkably hard to write a holiday column about peace on earth and goodwill towards men. The next person who says to me "Well, you don't want to lock in your losses," is going to get such a smack. Like you, I live in a persistent state of anxiety, but unlike you, I have a Zoloft prescription. This gives me the illusion that perhaps there is some light shining through the gloom.

You have your health. We take this for granted day in and day out, worrying more about how we look in a size 8 rather than if that aneurysm will pop tomorrow. The mere fact that you can go to the gym and grab your fat handles in disgust is a blessing in itself. When you walk down the street this afternoon, remember there are lots of folks who can't.

You are not starving. Much of the world is facing a hunger challenge unlike anything seen in the past 50 years. A steep rise in food prices has made it worse, and now a global financial crisis threatens to extend the suffering. Years ago, unable to fly home for Thanksgiving, I shared a table at a Burger King with a bum who plopped himself down uninvited. All I could think to say was, "Hell of a Thanksgiving dinner, huh?" To which he said unflinchingly, "It is, if it's all you got."

The guy across the street from you who goes to a different church is not putting IEDs in your driveway or strapping a bomb to his teenager to blow up the grocery store. Nor is he holding his breath until the U.S. leaves, so he can slit your throat because your sect is theologically 3% different than his.

Guys with AK-47s are not raiding your village, raping your wife and daughters before killing them, and then looting your home before they burn it to the ground. All this as a prelude to your own starvation and/or dismemberment the next time they come calling -- just because they want to own more drought-ravaged sand.

One of your kid's classmates, wrecked up on meth and video games where they get to the next level by killing more people in increasingly violent ways, hasn't decided to smuggle guns into the high school and start shooting his way into the headlines.

You aren't out on the street competing for spare change or for a cardboard carton to spend the night in.

There is no doubt that we are in for some rough days ahead. But lash yourself to the mast of hope. Kiss your kids. Take and return whatever love is in your life. Reach out and help someone else. Better days are coming and you will be part of them.

OTL will not publish again until Jan 2.

The story you have just read is an attempt to blend fact and fiction in a manner that provokes thought, and on a good day, merriment. It would be ill-advised to take any of it literally. Take it, rather, with the same humor with which it is intended. Cut and paste or link to it at your own peril.

4 comments about "The Holiday Dispirit".
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  1. Jim Dugan from PipPops LLC, December 19, 2008 at 7:52 a.m.

    I'm going to have to re-read this because I'm missing the fiction part . . .

  2. Lori Rosen from The Rosen Group, December 19, 2008 at 8:26 a.m.

    Well done! But you forget a few more bright spots ahead: January 20th inauguration and the new season of 24!

  3. Jim Dugan from PipPops LLC, December 19, 2008 at 11:56 a.m.

    From Mrs. Jim Dugan aka Barbara: I, too, missed the fiction in the well-articulated commentary by George Simpson. I truly appreciate all there is to be thankful for in my life. As we move through difficult and then better days, let us not forget those people who are less fortunate than ourselves. Rather, let us each do something to improve the life of at least one other person, whether with a hot meal, hand-me down clothes, a new toy, a one-on-one heartfelt conversation, a contribution to your favorite charity, or through volunteering your time.

  4. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, December 19, 2008 at 1:03 p.m.

    What fiction?

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