There's still a lot of Christianity in Christmas
Oh, what a long and wearying day; the drive to the far tip of Essex to visit the nearly-mother-in-law, take her out for a Christmas meal and exchange presents. It felt like most of the world was on the M3 and M25 along with generous dollops of fog and enough filthy road surface gunk to turn the world grey.
Was it all so bad? Not at all. The drivers, though often nervous for the unfamiliarity with such arduous trips, displayed none of the normal road rage symptoms and aggression one sees on the average weekday. The other diners in the restaurant were jovial and joined conversations and sent parting goodbyes to complete strangers while the busy waiting staff smiled indulgently at the children scampering around. All of this not normal behaviour.
Many of us bewail the passing of the 'true' value of Christmas and we fear that it has all been taken over by cynical marketing types eager to part us from our salaries, I certainly do. Today was a revelation and such a reassurance. People were taking the time to be nice to each other, smile and act with consideration that is often absent from the daily race. Maybe Adler was right and we are motivated for the benefit of society; maybe the marketeers haven't squeezed the last ounce of community out of us yet. What happened today was a demonstration to me that the spirit of Christmas is alive and well. Ain't that great?!
posted by The Shepton Witch @ 23:52
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2 Comments:
I do think that there isn't enough goodwill for our fellow men sculling about; we could all do well to follow what I've been told recently - sounds a bit macabre but it works for me! Treat whomever you meet as if it was the last time you'll see them on earth. I think taking people for granted breaks down into a familiarity:contempt issue. We assume we're going to have people around us tomorrow. Perhaps we won't!!
I guess that would work well! For me, the simple thing to do is to smile at people. Do you know how many people that are out there who never seem to crack their faces?!! It's really quite frightening. Give me laughter lines over scowl crevasses any day.
Have you ever tried the smile experiment? Walk down a street and give a total stranger a big, wide (and genuine) smile. Watch them. There are very few people who can resist the innate urge to return the smile, though there are one or two.
I read somewhere that smiling releases all sorts of feel-good chemicals into the bloodstream that can last for up to one and a half hours. Starting the day with a smile sounds like a good plan and before the chemicals work off, you'll probably have smiled again and boosted them. How good is that?
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