Joy To The World

Effort:
  ef * fort   noun
"a vigorous or determined attempt"

The way I see it, effort starts in the head.  What brings me to this thought is my own lack of any "determined attempt" at making the holiday season a nice one for all the dear people in my world.  At least for now.  I can justify this.  Drum roll......

The energy I expend daily to make EVERY DAY a nice one for all the dear people in my world is all I have.  There is nothing left to motivate me to take my life in my hands at the Mall parking lot or closest intersection.

I choose not to support what I see as a heightened insanity of an already insane cultural excess.  I do not wish to support huge corporations who contribute to a political climate which sends our young people to war in foreign countries, to protect their right to a bottom line. The propaganda our youngsters are plagued with, to 'fight for our freedom, our rights' really really gets under my skin, being that there are not a lot of my  'rights' left to fight for.

During a discussion with a friend about my bah humbug attitude toward the holiday season, I tried to get the point across that having a mainstream "holiday" attitude will not be dictated by the influence of the media which is bought and paid for by the corporate retail industry.  Her counter point was that the season is not about that but is "for the children" and it is "about giving".  It was a tough discussion given the fact that I was choking on a more blunt reply, and allowed the meaningless phrase "you could be right" to exit my mouth.  It was a "determined attempt" to be nonjudgemental and love her for who she is.  Merry Christmas, friend.  The way I see it this seasonal insanity is detrimental to our children, warping a their development of healthy values, and it is not about giving, but about buying. 

Okay.  What prompted this?  This year I was doing so well regarding my acrimony towards society surrounding the diabolical attempts at sucking me into behaviors which simply make no sense to me.  I was calmly going about my days, as usual, making "determined attempts" to make this world a better place, every day.  And this morning I saw what will probably be my Christmas Gift from my youngest son on the counter...two Skor bars.  (my favorite, but that is not the point)  Points for knowing that I DO love Skor bars, those chocolaty coated toffee bars a little drop of heaven.  Loss of points, LOTS of loss for the minimal amount of "determined effort" in showing me how much he appreciates and is grateful for the fact that I share my home with him, which he cannot seem to make any kind of "determined effort" at keeping clean, to show his appreciation and gratitude for having warm safe shelter.  Or keeping my car free of his garbage because he knows what a gift it is to have the use of.  How about filling the wood rack so that his aged mother doesn't have to do it and we can save a little money by heating the house with the wood stove rather than burn up our oil?  And maybe give his son a bath one night, and tuck him in to bed?  Or even pick up after him, and spend an hour playing with him so I can get some other stuff done? 

Where is the EFFORT??  If we go back to "......it's the thought that counts", I think that can be successfully translated into "....it's the effort that counts".  The amount of value I have to you is equal to the amount of effort extended towards me.  Am I off target?  I may be, but that's the way it looks to me.

Thus ends my holiday rant.  In summary, I think we can avoid the holiday crazies by remembering that a valid way to celebrate the birth of Christ, if that is our goal, is to expend our energy ALL YEAR LONG in gifting our smiles, our help, our forgiveness and our gratitude to anyone we can, and remembering that the Christian church did nothing more than turn a simple and sweet pagan celebration into a propaganda point, and WalMart turned it into a commercial fiesta.  We don't have to swallow it.

Peace,
Elfscooter