Happy Solstice!
Happy Winter Solstice, one and all! The Year King is reborn, and the world starts anew.
Well, it’s still winter, but you get the idea.
My weekly post is up at the Midnight Hour. It’s about strategies that help one write when one’s life is falling to pieces. Good and necessary information, says I. Especially during this time of year.
Rant ahoy:
I hate this time of year. I am not a Grinch, but I hate this time of year. I hate how people treat their children in malls this time of year–they’re upset and angry trying to keep up with the materialistic excess, and they take it out on the kids. I hate the rampant, crass commercialism. I despise the pretense of perfection that is so many family get-togethers, where simmering resentment lies just under the surface, jealousy shines in the eyes, and people think that pretending to be the perfect family for one day will somehow make the abuse and one-upmanship okay for the rest of the year. I hate how domestic disturbances and suicides spike at around this time.
Most of all, I hate how plenty of people think that doing one kind deed or going to church one day out of the year excuses being a complete and total jacka$$ the other three-hundred-and-sixty-four days. I hate the false, cloying sentimentalism–peace on earth, goodwill toward men? That’s not just one day a year, dammit.
One should be as decent as one can all year round. That’s called being an adult human being.
To that end, I’d like to thank every year-round decent person I know. Like the Selkie, who is stellar as a human being can get. Like my kids, who are wonderful people with occasional bad days, but who doesn’t have those? Like that lady who works at the Chevron on the corner, the one with the son who won’t turn his cell phone on but who always has a smile and a hello for me. Like the peeps at La Bottega and Pho Thanh who recognize me and have a smile for a regular.
You know who you are, you decent year-round people. Thank you. It’s because of you guys that I strive to be as good as I can be–not fake-nice, not false, but as decent and fine a human being that I can be–all year ’round. I have your example in front of me every day, and I thank you.
I hate this time of year. But it also reminds me that being a good person is a daily goal, one that you work on every day, all day, with varying degrees of success but always keeping that goal in sight. Be as good as you can, every day. It’s important.
It’s not peace on earth, but I think it’s the only reasonable way one human being can commit to getting there. Though my pessimism tells me human nature is to destroy itself, maybe being as decent as one can every day might ameliorate that. It may tip the balance, in some cosmic way. It might be the feather that makes that hundredth monkey turn the scales, or something.
Hey, if it’s the season for miracles, that’s the one I’m going to hope for. Dream big, says I. What’s the use of dreaming small?
Happy Solstice to you, one and all. Be good and safe out there.
Over and out.
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