Finding Christmas Within The Coughs of the Flu

I sit here stuffy nosed, achy chested, and all in all feeling like total crap. It's 10:54pm on December 22nd and I know that none of you have read anything from me in almost two months. Not since the last word was written lambasting the McCain/Palin ticket and angry word after angry word was written criticizing those who supported them. Well, since then we picked a new president. He'll be sworn in in less than a month. But we're three days away from something that is supposed to symbolize the, if only for a tiny bit, ignorance to our differences be they political, ideological, or even just sporting.

It's funny how when you're in a vulnerable state you allow yourself to accept people more. Because when you feel trapped or helpless or in danger or merely just under the weather you cling to that which binds us together. Humanity.

(I realize that sounds extremely corny but hang in there with me.)

We ignore our differences and accept, again if only for a fleeting moment, the kindness of the core of ourselves: humanity and decency for each other.

It's been seen before. Sure you can look to 9/11 or other negative situations like the typhoon in the South Pacific a few years ago or Katrina. But why is it that way? Why is it that we refuse to notice that, hey, we're all in this together, until a large number of our species is killed or injured? That doesn't make any sense to me.

I'm a victim of it too, though, I suppose. I find ways to forget the singular reason why we're all here and take it for granted. We all do. Life is too busy. But I guess it's just me being sentimental to say, even though Christmas has become a secular capitalistic holiday, let's make sure we focus on the essential meaning behind the holiday.

We can argue over religion all day long but really, the meaning of Christmas is bigger than that. The meaning of Christmas (and maybe this is me just being idealistic) is an all-encompassing hope that we can realize the very point of humanity. However, since we cannot physically see everyone on this planet, we visit our families. Think of them not only as your closest out of all of humanity that you love but think of them as a microcosm of the rest of the world.

Does that sound sappy and corny? Probably. But you know what, right now, I don't care. This time of the year does it to me.

When we grow up Christmas changes. When you're a kid it's all about the toys and going to whichever relative's house. For me, and probably many others, this was the routine for many, many years. You establish traditions. But at some point the traditions break. Families have quarrels or some pass away or some of them move away and you have to find new traditions for Christmas. These traditions become what you feel Christmas is all about. Going to grandma's house on Christmas Eve and eating the same dinner every year with the same aunts and uncles and cousins. This is what Christmas is all about. You grow up expecting every Christmas to be the same...but it won't always be the same and you become disappointed when it changes.

I hated when these changes started for me. They're still changing, in fact. However, at 26-years-old I know there are plenty of new traditions to make and eventually traditions I will start with my kids that they will cherish.

The good side about growing up? It's slowly realizing what Christmas is really about.

It was never about the toys. It was never about eating the same thing every year. It was never about the same 47 minute drive up a dark highway into central Connecticut and then driving back late at night drifting asleep in the car thinking about what you'd get the next morning. It wasn't even about the memories. Nope.

It was about the fact that beyond whatever was happening in the world, beyond what family problems might be occurring, beyond what gifts you got or what you ate, you loved these people and wished them well.

This isn't something that I've just stumbled upon at 26. It's something you slowly realize. Everyone has that moment when it clicks and they fully "get it." I'm just now putting it into words. Why? I'm feeling vulnerable.

I've got the flu and I'm sitting here thinking about all the things I need to get done before I head back to Connecticut. Or at least I was. Until I stared at my computer screen in this dark and empty apartment and the moment struck me. It's Christmas time.

And don't think that because this is technically a Christian holiday that this message or lesson applies only to gentiles. Please. Anyone and everyone, friends and enemies, people from every nook and cranny of this earth deserve to realize and put into practice the point, the essence, the chakra, if you will (and I will), of Christmas.

Take a moment over the next three days to really think about what matters to you. When you see your family don't forget what you just thought about. The trick though? When the presents are all unwrapped, when the family's gone home, when you've gone home, when you're already thinking about the new year and work and all your everyday problems, try and remember what you felt just a few days prior...and extrapolate it. Apply it to others beyond your family. See what happens.

It's kind of sad in a way that feeling vulnerable is the catalyst to realizing what really matters. But that is how we operate in the 21st century. So I guess the point of this article is to help you realize the point of Christmas without having to become vulnerable first. Think of this as a little present from your humble author.

I don't claim to know everything but I figured this mini epiphany might help you in some way. If we only respect our humanity but once a year it might as well be at Christmas. Just do me a favor and try not to forget it until next Christmas. There's enough people forgetting altogether to cover us for years.

Merry Christmas, my friends. The jokes will start anew in 2009.