Christmas Time

I am going to give you a scenario. We have all been there, you will recognize this. You are out in public, and you will hear someone being rude, negative, or caustic. Or perhaps you will be walking down the street and see someone asking for money. Whatever the scenario, there is always that one person who always says "It's Christmas!" To justify giving the other person the money, or to calm down the irate person in the mall -true story here. The phrase "But it's Christmas!/"C'mon, it's Christmas!"/"It's Christmas !"is tossed around like crazy this time of year. Yes, I realize that Christmas is the time for giving, time for love and peace on Earth. But should we really need a holiday to remind is to be good people? Do we really need a holiday to remind us to be good people, or to convince us to be kind even to strangers? Here's another one that really gets me. There is this woman who works at Smiths. We will call her Nancy. Nancy is generally cold, impersonal, but efficient. A few days ago, however, she was smiling at us, asking us how we were. As we left, she wished us a happy holiday. Go in there a day or two later, and I watched as Nancy did the same thing again. I welcomed this behavior of course. However, I knew that it was probably just brought on by the time of the year. The holiday spirit, so to speak. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE  Christmas. I love the whole feeling of it. But it kinda disappionts me that people need a holiday as a reason to be a good person. To give gifts and be more joyful, tolerant, or understanding. I wonder, how come we cannot hold these ideals all year long? You see, I always make it a point to ask people "Hi, how are you?" and when I am leaving, I wish them a nice day. Especially to cashiers, it tends to throw them off guard, (especially if you say it first) I smile at strangers who I make eye contact with, I try to be polite. Somtimes I go for months without getting any kind of similar response back. Then December hits, and people slowly start acting in a similar fashion. All of a sudden, people are more charitable as well. There is probably more giving in December than there is all summer long. While I love the holiday spirit, I guess I wish that more people would just be good people because it's the right thing to do. Then again, maybe it's just me. Perhaps I am imagining it all. We shall see. I will be keeping a closer eye this time. I have faith that Humanity as a general whole, is good. I hope that soon, more and more people will begin to carry the ideals of peace, goodwill, giving selflessly all year 'round. As for me, I will keep doing what I am doing Just because it's the right thing to do. I will keep a closer eye on Nancy though.


~Victoria~