324 It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

The Holiday season is upon us and I’m really sick of the line which I’ve used as my title being played in ads for just about anything you can think of to try to make us anxious to spend yet more money (which we don’t have) on things (which we don’t need) to prove to our friends and family that we’re “in the spirit of the season.”  My suspicion is that far too many people are too heavily into the seasonal “spirits,” but that may be beside the point.

The holidays CAN (and SHOULD) be an enjoyable time spent with friends and family.  It seems sad that for so many of us just being together with those we love isn’t enough and that these occasions have, all too often, become times of stress, excessive spending, and overindulgence.  Love, after all, isn’t bought, it’s given, and it’s best when it’s given freely.

What many of us tend to (try to?) forget is that the Holidays are really just the beginning of WINTER, which means that “SNOW SEASON” is just getting underway.  This, for many of us, means that the “most wonderful time” leads us into to a considerably LESS wonderful one, as this cartoon from Between Friends suggests.

Of course, winter (and even SNOW!) CAN (on some occasions) be rather pleasant, at least for school kids (especially when it leads to a “SNOW DAY”) as this cartoon suggests.

Such (all too rare) occasions provide a seemingly endless source of amusement for kids, at least.  For example, Dustin seems to have remembered that enough snow CAN produce considerable pleasure, as demonstrated in this cartoon.

This strip from Foxtrot also demonstrates at least one of the amusing possibilities of “playing” in the snow.

​People also tend to forget that snow can lead to the amusement of “grown-ups,” as well as children.  Of course, such “olders” MAY feel a certain degree of guilt along with their enjoyment, but I’m not convinced that it slows down their amusement all that much.  Take THIS strip from Zits as an example.  

On the other hand, adult people MIGHT (on occasion) find other ways to enjoy the cold and snow.  The Argyle Sweater uses snowmen in this cartoon to relate to one form of adult entertainment which might arise from the cold and snow.

​And, of course, there is always the pleasure derived from using the cold and snow as an excuse to just curl up in a nice warm house and ignore the “unpleasantness” outside.  I doubt that I am alone is recognizing that Garfield just might have a perfectly reasonable, and rational, methodology in the one suggested here.

So, there IS hope for surviving the worst of the Winter Season.  The “Most Wonderful Time” may draw to a close with the passing of the holidays, but winter doesn’t HAVE to be the drag that it sometimes seems to be.  I find this especially true when I remember that there are LOTS of “holidays” throughout this season.  After all, MOST spiritual traditions have some sort of celebrations in honor of the seasonal changes at this time of year.  

So, in honor of the Winter Solstice (the major focus of many of those fast-approaching celebrations), I offer this image:

I’ve been to Stonehenge (as I’ve probably noted before) but NOT for the Mid-winter Solstice, nor have I actually seen it with snow.  But, I’ve seen (and been awestruck by) those gigantic stones erected centuries ago for apparent use in celebrating the seasons.  It IS a widely held belief (based on the very specific alignment of the stones) that the structure was created in recognition of the seasonal changes and their influence on people and societies.  

I plan to be back in a couple of weeks, but (since my usual schedule would put up my next post on Christmas Eve./Christmas Day) I expect I’ll aim to get my “Holiday Greetings” post (including my traditional quick review of the year’s news of my family) up about December 21/22.  While you are waiting, I hope that you can enjoy the season, whatever it brings you.  I expect to return to a more normal schedule in early January.