HKRXmasux Spirit

Leesa has mentioned not really feeling the HKRXmasux spirit this year. Before we all go over and deluge her with comments full of vapid and cloying well wishes, let me say I feel the same way. It’s not that I don’t like this time of year. I love everything about it, from the winter weather to the pretty decorations and twinkling lights to the increased suicide and crime rates to the time off from work. Unfortunately, although I like this time of year, I just don’t feel Christmas-y anymore. I guess part of it is the price for growing up, along with the added pounds and weakening eyesight and bits of my teeth being man-made and my body and brain slowing and my skin slackening and…come to think of it, just what is the good side of growing up? Responsibilities? Pain? Better understanding of the world around us? Yeah, right.

One of my longest running complaints is the way people forget how they felt during their formative years. Sure, they remember specific events, but they lose the reasons why they once wore Mohawks or parachute pants or did the twist. People claim this is normal, and they may be right, but being normal isn’t the same as being smart. Normal is often another word for convenient, and as anyone who has lived awhile and obtained a little wisdom (the two aren’t always mutually conclusive) knows, there’s what’s right and there’s what’s convenient and never the twain shall meet.

Thoreau once claimed that, as we age, the things we gain don’t make up for the things we lose. Thoreau was a literary gasbag, but I have to agree with him on that point. Knowledge and understanding are both good things, but wisdom is often another word for caution and caution another word for cowardice. Sure, even a dumb animal is once bitten twice shy, but if all life has taught you is eyes down, don’t touch, then you might as well break out the magnum and paint your cubicle in brainy grey.

How does all this relate to the HKRXmasux spirit? It doesn’t. I’ve been writing this post for days amidst a flurry of business related emergencies, two and three words at a time, so it has degenerated from a single coherent discourse to a bunch of random thoughts. Hallelujah. Chunky peanut butter. Hile booger schadenfreude to the drunken lizard.

But back to the whole holiday spirit thing, I think this may be one of those things we “normally” lose as we age. We’ve lost our innocence, our sense of wonder, and if you don’t have children of your own you can’t vicariously feel these things through them. Maybe losing the spirit is just another price of growing up.

But maybe there’s still time to reclaim those feelings yet. Maybe the HKRXmasux spirit is like a hug, one of those things you can only get by giving it away. You can’t rely on others to give it to you, you have to give it to them. So get out there, people. Smile a little wider and easier. Have some boiled custard without thinking about how it’s heading straight to your thighs. Enjoy the crisp smell of the air without bitching about how cold you feel. Grab that special Ninja Bunny Dentist in your life, hold her in your arms, and tell her that you love her and can’t live without her and will kill the both of you rather than ever let her go. Just allow yourself to feel good and alive and hopefully it will spread to whomever you touch. Do it now or I’ll kill you with a hatchet.

Merry fecking HKRXmasux, out

P.S. Now let's all go to Leesa's site and deluge her with comments full of vapid and cloying well wishes.