Another Limited Time Offer

Are you as saddened and sickened by the number and frequency of "holiday gift" commercials airing on television already as I am? We are outnumbered, my friend, and soon will be relics from another, more bucolic if not benighted America. It's weird enough we have made Halloween a 'holiday' with cards, parties and gifts.

I find it funny how the costumes and customs preceded the cash-in but I've been told I'm a funny Guy but this year retailers are already at SalesCon4 because there are six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and that could be calamitous, so hurry!! As merchants everywhere say to their accountants about those early morning Friday sales after Thanksgiving, once you go black..... 

In truth, I hate this time of year with its pseudo bonhomie and fake fellowship-people who cross the street to walk away from me the other eleven months of the year now wish me a Merry Christmas or, much safer, politically, a Happy Holiday. 

And now all of it is creeping up sooner and sooner on the calendar. I saw the first holiday decorations and shop window displays before we even turned the clocks back last weekend, making my mood as dark as the afternoons that have followed. 

I recognize we are spirits in the material world but we've allowed the rate and pace of our lives to be driven by others whom we cannot name if we were to even bother to try to think about it. Instead of just all of us, we have 'us' and 'them' and 'they' (always without names) are who push the the pace to breakneck, turn the knob up to eleven and punch us into hyper-drive as we run through each and every day. 

Without looking it up, and I won't know if you cheated, but you will, what was the #1 International News story two weeks ago? A month ago? Yeah, gets foggy fast doesn't it? Especially when so much of our 'news channels' are devoted to Cher's tour, Kim's Kid, and what movie star is playing professional sports or did I get that backwards? Sort of all marinates together after awhile and bubbles through.

We know the names of Britney's kids, but draw a blank of those of our Supreme Court Justices. I may not know how many tiers of coverage are offered through healthcare.gov but I can't help but believe devoutly on or more of the voices screeching about how its architect is really from Kenya. This week. He was from Indonesia last week (there's a schedule on-line if you can't keep track of it in your head). 

It can't be just me who is starting to see life as something to be gotten through. I struggle and sometimes fail to resist the temptation to just shout 'next!' as I watch reports of unrest on TV, or struggle with (self-inflicted) unhappiness at home or in the workplace. Talk about drilling a second hole in the boat to let the water out, that’s me and my impatience. 

Not sure it’s clinically crazy but it’s certainly foolish, especially since I'm actually afraid of 'next' because I know nothing about it. As awful as now maybe, and each of us has to decide that for her/himself it beats the snot out of whatever is around the next bend. 

It's not just the devil you know, it's the time and money you can save on getting your horrors wholesale. Maybe Sartre is right and Hell really is other people. I had hoped that was going to be more reassuring. Next! 
-bill kenny