Ever since I stepped left-footed and gimpy into adulthood, with all its awkward realizations about one’s self, and the long term consequences of unfortunate choices made as a youth that still pertain, and the mild gagging sensation as the truth of the hopelessness of our modern situation sinks in…yes, ever since all that started happening, I’ve noticed how people still say Merry Christmas to each other sometime after Dec. 1. I noticed they say it mostly without cynicism, that’s good, but not without the creeping banality that accompanies “Good Morning” that we say to acquaintances in the office, nevertheless, with a lack of habitual varnish that long ago killed greetings in general, or at least turned them in to zombie language – perfunctory words we say because they are part of a fabric that sustains niceness.
But my point was going to be that it is a kind of spritz in the face with a spray bottle when someone says Merry Christmas, because it’s out of the ordinary, and it reminds me of the season, even if it is somewhat small-talkish, still it is a break from everyday. I started saying Good Morning to people when I became an old fart and stopped caring what people thought, and started looking for routines and structures to give me security, as the daily nap and afternoon snack did when I was a child. I started using this formal phrase, though I was not altogether comfortable being a grown-up, just because I got tired of being slob who could only say, “hey” to casual people in the hallways.
Now I’ll drop a little “merry Christmas” as I’ve leaving the office afternoons, for a few more days, as a way of expressing sincerity, of acknowledging the Christmas season. Dang, did I just write an entire blog entry about this?
But this is a cool thing because Christmas is so beset by consumerism and politics, and when a little bit of real Christmas cheer can creep in under the radar, before it becomes illegal or recast into an insult, or eviscerated of its out-of=the ordinariness, well it just makes life a little more bearable, don’t it.
So say it with pride, America. Merry Christmas. Say it to strangers and to pets. Buck the Texas weather if it doesn’t conjure up holiday cheer, and say those words, Ed. Or something similar.
