Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Being alone at Christmas: Don't knock it, try it

The romanticized version of Christmas dictates that an adult person of dating age should have someone special in his or her life, or face utter doom and depression.

Bullshit and Ho, Ho, Ho.

I'll be spending my first Christmas alone without any family in my life. And I'm excited and happy about it. Turner Classic Movies be damned!

No, I've not been sipping the egg nog early. I've just learned a few things in the School of Semi-Hard Knocks and been given a refresher course by a close friend who knows what it's like to be down and out of romantic love during the Christmas season.

Here's the bottom line: You have to learn to like yourself, and stand being around yourself, before going after anyone to be with you and fulfill the supposed Christmas ideal. (Of course and with great respect, I exclude widows and widowers from coming under any conclusion presented in this blog post. My condolences and prayers go out to them, particularly at this time of year.)

My friend tells me that you can be very alone on Christmas and still technically be with someone in a marriage. Wow! That sounds like a real Nightmare at Christmas.

The romanticized version of Christmas is not real, at least for a lot of people. And if you can't stand being alone at Christmas, go to church, sing in the choir, go to the rescue mission to help serve food, visit a nursing home or just walk downtown and hug a homeless person. I've done so. And you'd be surprised at how good you feel.

So turn off the radio or the TV. Quit crying for yourself. Don't get drunk. Consider your good fortune in being in a world that God so loved that He gave it His only son. And whoever believed in His son would have eternal life.

That's what the day is all about anyway, not the closing scene of White Christmas or any other movie trying to sell more of a myth than reality.

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