Wednesday 11 December 2019

Being Out of Line.

Every shop I go into at the moment treats me to music (which I have no way of switching off) dedicated to one of three themes:

1. Christmas music with lines like ‘it’s the most wonderful time of the year.’ I think I’ve explained often enough why I consider Christmas to be anything but the most wonderful time of the year. I stand by my explanation.

2. Christmas music with lines like ‘let it snow, let it snow, let it snow’ and ‘walking in a winter wonderland.’ I hate snow, and my reasons for so doing are perfectly rational.

3. Christmas music about a man – purportedly an avatar – who was born in order to be sacrificed so that the badness inherent in the human condition would be washed away and everybody could go to heaven. This stopped making sense to me at around age twelve, and subsequent examination of the world’s spiritual traditions has led me to the strong suspicion that Jesus’s ministry was hopelessly misinterpreted and resulted in a ludicrously simplistic delusion which has infected generation after generation for two thousand years.

This is not about cynicism, and those who call me ‘Scrooge’ are both misinterpreting Scrooge and misunderstanding me. I’m actually quite the opposite of Scrooge, although I do admit to having one thing in common with him and it ends in ‘humbug.’

Footnote

I jokingly said to one of the young women in the coffee shop: 'Will you be doing mad things for Christmas and hoping to live to tell the tale?'

The reply was an ironic and dismissive smile.

'So what will you be doing?' I continued.

'Getting through it.'

Seems I'm not alone.

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