"I can't believe that it is December already!" "Only twenty five days to Christmas!" "How times flies when you are having fun!" How many more of these saying are we all going to have to listen to before the big day arrives and then people will be saying "all this fuss just for one day", "only another twelve months and it will be back again"and other very predictable things? Are we a predictable people? I like to think that I am spontaneous and don't have to rely on the not very original, but the truth is that I am not. We all depend upon a certain amount of constructed comments to pad out our conversations and I guess that there might be one or two deathly silences if we all had to rely on totally original thoughts-I feel sure that I would be one of those people. One to ponder over a nice bowl of soup, looking out over a winter wonderland and thinking, "I'm glad I did my washing yesterday"!
Snow. Don't know about you, but I don't like it. Okay, I concede that it looks very pretty as virgin snow, it turns even the ugliest thing in the garden into a joy to behold and it softens the harsh sounds of traffic and allows a gentle peace to reign-if only for a little while until the gritters come along and insanity is again restored to the world. And can somebody tell me why the whole of the kingdom comes to a griding halt when it snows whilst other countries just get on with it? I know that some bureaucrat will tell me that, as it is not a normal occurrence, we cannot afford to have things readily available-"just in case"-because it is not cost effective. But do we have to close schools and let people have time off work because they cannot get in their cars and travel the few miles needed for them to get there? I accept that as more and more people live further away from their workplace it is a bit more difficult; but in the old days people walked-and walked whatever the weather. Have we become slaves to our cars and let our health slide as a result? Would you be completely useless for the rest of the day if you walked two miles to work in the nice sunshine, let alone the leg killing couple of inches of snow? I did it at the beginning of the year when we had a rather heavy snowfall; I took my time and enjoyed the walk (all uphill I might add!); got to work on time and felt strangely invigorated all day. Surely, there must be a lesson to be learned here. Snow-take it or leave it, love it or hate it, we all have an opinion on the subject.
As we are reaching this all important time of the year, I wonder how many are busy buying presents, spending far too much money and generally getting into dire financial straits in a bid to indulge to excess everything that should be held sacred for millions of Christians. Have we lost the true meaning of Christmas? Is is just a time to have off work, receive lots of presents and generally overeat and promise that next year will better? I think we have. We have to do everything bigger and better than Joe Bloggs next door. We have to be seen to be able to afford the "in thing" this year in terms of toys and gadgets. We seem to need to want to be able to say that we overspent this year -"but it is Christmas". What if-just once-we didn't overspend; only bought the children one present, didn't fill the freezer fit to bursting because the shops might be closed for a couple of hours on Christmas Day, and gave instead to the poor and lonely, the disadvantaged and the down and out. What if we gave the money saved to the starving in Africa, the displaced and the lost. What if.... What if we all took pride in our own country and gave the money saved to the Treasury to help fill our coffers and get us all out of the debt of trillions of pounds that this country is now finding itself in. Now that is definitely a "food for thought" moment and one that I might enjoy exploring next time....
And as one last thought. Have you spotted how many little terms I have used in this blog; phrases that we use all day and every day to keep this wonderful language alive and constantly changing?
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