However the legend of St Nicolas is true enough. He was an actual person who gave out gifts to the poor. Perhaps there is a bit of Christmas good will to be learnt from this.
I was reading a post on failbook.org (tried to find it but alas it was too late), a website for all the ridiculous posts made on facebook. One such post was a young girl's outrage at getting only $750 as a Christmas gift and not getting any presents. Most of us would read that post in disgust at how greedy and self centred that child is being. I certainly never received such a gift ever from my parents.
In fact the most expensive present I have ever received from my family was a car but said car was already 20 years old when I received it and my entire family - brothers, sisters, grandparents - had chipped in to give me the car as a 21st birthday present. That car was my pride and joy, partly because my family had chipped in for it, until I moved to a new country and had to sell it. I still feel a pang of loss when I think about it because it was like an old friend to me.
But I digress. Returning to the earlier point, what does it say about society now that a child can make such a self centred post on Facebook? Personally if a child of mine had written such a post I would be taking said gift and giving it to someone who better deserves it. And that is the real point. We get caught up in the whole hype of Christmas, that we must give to everyone in our lives - friends, family, the dog, the cat, that cousin you see only at Christmas, the teacher, the girl you say hi to at the supermarket. We are so busy giving and preparing for the Christmas day feasts and focusing inward in an attempt to focus outward, do we ever stop to think why we need to buy all these gifts?
We are so conditioned to buy gifts that we will do so without thought to why or should we. Without sounding ungrateful to my family, I will use this example. I personally am more of a tom boy. I would rather buy a new part for my computer than make up, I read tech blogs over fashion blogs, the only designer clothing I own was given to me and even then I don't recognise the brand (I'm told it is designer however) and my husband actually finds me less attractive wearing make up and fancy clothes (he thinks its unnecessary). And above all I find strong smells like vanilla sickening (I'm told this is a trait of being on the Autism Spectrum because Aspies are hyper sensitive to things like sound, smell, touch etc.). Yet every year waiting without fail under a Christmas tree my dear loving mother will place countless smelly bath salts, moisturisers scented with vanilla or what ever flower is her flavour of the month, make up and other such girlie items.
You may think I am being a bit of a bitch for writing this, but I'm asking you to look at this perspective. My mother, who is not a rich person, has spent a couple hundred dollars of her money to place these items there for me. These are items that will not be used. In all likelihood they will be discarded at some point in the future, mostly likely unused, when they pass their use by date or they are dug out from underneath what ever pile of stuff has accumulated on top of them. They are worthless items to me, especially when I have sensitivities to many chemicals found in shampoos, make up, conditioners, soaps and so on. I can't even use most of them because of these reasons.
I ask you to think about this. My mother has taken her hard earned, hard won money, and tossed it away. The end result of her conditioned consumerism. She has become so conditioned to placing these items under the Christmas tree that it becomes irrelevant whether or not they are items that will benefit me. They benefit the big companies that produce them as they are another sale, thus adding that little bit to their piles of wealth. They damage the earth because I will end up tossing out perfectly good items because I have ultimately no use for them. And the head way that my mother has made on the debts she needs to pay is eroded a little bit more for these meaningless gifts to be under the Christmas tree.
My point is this, gifts that are given because we have to or ill-advised are not benefiting anyone but massive corporations wanting you to buy stuff and banks who are happy to lend you money to waste. If you give excessive and inappropriate gifts, the wrong people pay the debt. There are those that would say "Just be happy you got something". Why should I be happy knowing that my mother's need to feel acceptance at Christmas, a need feed by creative marketing, is only at her detriment. It benefits the wrong people. It does not benefit her to see the "Oh that's lovely" look while I shove it under a near by pillow. It doesn't benefit the world when I throw out said product. It doesn't benefit her when she gets her credit card bill in January.
So this year maybe do something good for the world and take that $750 and give it to someone who really needs it. At this time of year there is many animal rescue groups over flowing with kittens and puppies from people who didn't think to desex their animals, or worse, just didn't care. They are in this world because society looked on them as a disposable commodity. They are not. They are living creatures too. And those creatures need to be feed. And taken to the vet. And desexed. How many kittens and puppies will die in January because said kitten or puppy is no longer cute? Or said human is bored of it? How many will pay with their lives for this? A pet is for life, not until you get bored.
Not up for animals. How many people are in your community sleeping in a car? How many children won't get any gift for Christmas? My niece lives with her mother who does not have a lot of money after loosing her job and because my niece's father won't pay child support. My niece's mother cannot give her a gift this Christmas. The gifts she gets will be from the rest of her family. We have closed ranks to make sure her Christmas is special. How many other children in this world won't get that? There are many who just want a roof over their heads.
This year maybe pay it forward instead of paying it inward.
No comments:
Post a Comment