Despite my pre-Christmas season commitment to avoid the annual commercialized Christmas pressure, I find myself drowning in a sea of cheap bows and ugly wrapping paper yet again.

Besides the nasty glue gun burn on my finger (yes, the same finger I snipped open with kitchen shears last summer) obtained while obsessively creating 3D paper stars so we would have some "new" decorations this year, I've depleted my "slush fund" like a cistern in a drought to buy presents for my kids and grandson. Not lots of presents, mind you, just one or two apiece. Now I'm fretting over the dearth of gifts and the depletion of my slush security fund. And there are still names on the list...

It doesn't help that everyone around me seems to have a surplus of Christmas funds this year. From iPads to the latest gaming system, to those wretched commercials where the wife presents her husband with a brand new Lexus with a ginormous bow on the top and the husband cracks open a box of "he went to Jared"...

Besides the gift issues, in order to spend Christmas Day with grandbaby, I did something I would ordinarily NEVER do. I finagled (manipulated) an invitation to the home of my SIL's parents for Christmas dinner. The kind of invitation that comes because folks don't want to say "no, we'd rather not include you, but we won't say so because we don't want to be rude."

Blea. Why do I do this to myself again and again? Can we just skip this season?

Don't try to tell me it's all about worshiping Jesus, because I had a more spiritual worship experience with the Lord last night in my dream montage (which involved a marble grotto, holy water and a genuinely intense one-on-one with Jesus) than I've ever had doing the Christmas thing.  Seriously, there's so much hype involved in Christmas and Easter services at church that it's often hard to hear His voice.

© Photographer | Agency: Dreamstime.com

As for the "creating family memories" and "togetherness" idea, that disintegrated sometime after my kids became teenagers.  Yeah, I remember opening gifts and racing to the phone in the hallway (the kind that was attached to the wall, folks, with a cord and everything!) to call my friends and compare gifts. I remember wishing, desperately, that one of my friends could keep me company for Christmas dinner with the fam. I really don't want to force my kiddos to endure my idealistic holiday vision against their will, either.

*sigh*
Hubby just came home and announced we must have a "state of the finances" meeting, which means nothing good. This is where I need a fast-foward button ...


Like I said, this is my whiny post. I'm sure I'll come out of it soon. Please forgive me for pity partying!

My friend Vanoy turned 86 in January. (No, the picture to the right is NOT a picture of her.) In the time I've known her, I noticed something... She doesn't get all worked up over current events and politics and whatever scandal is rocking Washington. She's lived through the Depression, World War II, the Korean War, Kennedy's assassination, the craziness of the 1960s, Vietnam, gasoline shortages in the 70s, the excess of the 80s, the Gulf War, the Clinton administration ('nuff said), 9/11, SARS, swine flu, and innumerable "this is an emergency" news bulletins.

When I paid attention to other folks of that generation, I witnessed the same tendency in many of them. They're aware of what's going on, and they feel for the people involved, but as a rule they don't tie themselves up in knots over the daily political situation or the outcome of the last election or the passage of House Bill !&$(%#&^*.

Part of the fun of social networking is the little window it opens into the thoughts and actions of our friends (and friends of our friends, and our sister's cousin's neighbor's dog, and Ashton Kutcher), as if they were right there with us. And because it's a controlled environment, we feel free to say things about those touchy subjects we wouldn't address at a dinner party, like religion and politics and our in-laws. If someone gets too nasty or weird or we can't win the argument, we can always "unfriend" 'em, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, we're learning some great relationship lessons that way, aren't we?

People are pitching fits about all manner of things. In our hyperspeed world, everything is urgent, everything is crucial. Like ants at a picnic, everyone snatches up a crumb and thinks they've got the whole loaf. And don't try to tell them there's more to the picture... or not to worry about it, unless you want to get bit.

Those years of life experience must teach a lesson we would do well to learn much earlier: 

I'm privileged to work at a newspaper with a long history. Once a week, I go through the archives from 20, 50, 75, even 100 years ago, and pull out bits of news for a "this week in history" column. You know what I've discovered? The news just repeats itself. Over and over and over. Sometimes word for word. It's a little scary, to be perfectly honest.

Political cartoons from the 1930s could literally be re-run today without any changes and be perfectly relevant. Subjects of intense debate and community conflict are addressed by one generation, only to creep back up a generation or two later. I actually found an article from 1909 about the sudden increase in the popularity of tattooing. Um. 1909? The article expressed concern that the current rage of tattooing among young people would surely result in the downfall of modern civilization.

Perhaps we should add something to that ancient saying "this too shall pass." "This too shall come back around again, eventually." Maybe that realization would help us avoid an apoplexy, an ulcer, or a broken relationship every time there's a news bulletin.

Maybe that's how you get to be 86.

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."

Matthew 6:34 The Message