Tidings of Comfort and Joy...

Christmas starts before Halloween and gains a kind of destructive force and speed like some monstrous snowball hurtling down a mountain.There is no denying it. It is on TV. It is on the radio. It is outside your window. It is at your job. It is in your dreams. It is under your bed. It is at the tollbooth on the turnpike. It is in the men's room at the Dakota. It is ubiquitous. The music never stops. You're OK at first but even those with relatively good mental health are eventually reminded of or re-live every minor and major disappointment of some previous Christmas or every loss associated with a special person no longer with us. If one Christmas carol doesn't get you another one eventually does. There is no escape. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. There is no escape from Christmas. You will never have enough money to deal with it. You will never be broke enough to be removed from it. You will never be able to hide from it. Christmas is all around you.You will not make new Christmas memories with the exception of particularly nasty December events, like a terrorist attack or a newly discovered attempted genocide somewhere in some country whose name you cannot pronounce. Peace on Earth- fat chance- good will towards men- no comment...and you haven't even considered the New Year yet...