Everything from A Christmas Carol to the Salvation Army’s
Christmas Appeal leaflet avers that people who are alone feel loneliest at
Christmas. I suppose that’s probably true of older people who’ve been used to
thinking of Christmas as a time for socialising with friends, family, work
colleagues and so on, most of whom are probably now dead, but is it generally
true of the rest? Is it true of me? No, for some reason it isn’t. I admit to
the occasional, fleeting sense that it would be nicer to say to somebody ‘Shall
we have a piece of Christmas cake?’ rather than just helping myself to a piece,
but it doesn’t last long and it isn’t serious. Maybe I’m so ingrained with the
Scrooge mentality that I don’t know how to associate Christmas with being
sociable. But then, I don’t think I ever did.
I was thinking on my walk tonight of the people who matter
to me. As far as I know, they’ll all be spending Christmas with friends and
family with the possible exception of the Woman in America.
I might be wrong, obviously, but she’s the one who troubles me, and it is to
her I would gravitate mentally and emotionally. Not that it makes any
difference, of course.
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