Christmas. The Essence of Mankind.

As the snowy, cold, festive season approaches, many sit depressed,
to see life isn't cracked up to what they thought it would be.

The ho hum life of getting up in the morning,
getting ready for school or a job they hate.
Maybe housecleaning is not a forte they enjoy
but the dishes are piled up from the night before.
What is one to do?

I can't help but go back to when people had nothing after the war.
People like my grand mother and even my parents whose youth and even life,
was lost, in running from fear, sitting in labor camps and receiving beatings in front of sharp toothed German Shepherds.

That to me, would be very depressing.
I would be angry to have some one rip my life away like this
Not these people.
They were survivors.

They saw the humor in things going wrong. They understood the world's insanity.
It looked pretty threatening and cold and yet it was wonderful
and people valued each other's warmth and
shared in what little there was to share.

What more could go wrong? They'd ask.
And sure enough something more always did and they
would find the humor in it and go on living,
working harder, to make it better.

One had to respect that.
I watched my grandparents and parents who took nothing for granted.
They blessed their food every day.
They took great pride in the shelter they owned working,
dollar down dollar a week. No job was too demeaning. They were free people.
Recycling was not something governments had to be involved in
Everyone knew to do that.
Every bolt, every screw could be reused somewhere else.

They worked and they grew their gardens and they pickled winter preserves, made their own jams, their own moon shine, their own juices, their own clothes and they had so much fun competing as to who made what the best, over a table eating cabbage soup with potatoes tomatoes, beets and meat the butcher cut from the cow or pig they brought to slaughter, animals they raised, on food they wanted to grow them on.

Simple fun in taking pride in what you do,
Becoming the best that you can be, at doing the things you know how to do.
Every one took part in helping every one, continuing to learn, and sharing in the bounty.

What happened to those people?
Where are they today?
No wonder life is boring.

There is no more craziness, no more life or living.

People are bored and heart broken and keep asking is this all there is?
They need to be entertained 24 hours a day.
Even actors can't keep up with the demand.

Today when we want something, we run to stores or whine and blame our parents and our government for things we don't have. We make them responsible for our lives, blame them for our shortcomings and failures, instead of taking pride in the life God made us a gift of.

Life is something to be treasured and celebrated.
It is a gift of breath and sight and wonder.
Every day is a new day to be experienced, in a new way and I have to say at this moment, that if you do not experience and learn something new every day, it is your own fault.

The world has so much to offer man, that there is no time for boredom or depression.
There is no time to sit idle believing solutions lie in drugs and alcohol.
No time to run away. Where are you running to anyway? What's out there that you can't find here? It's just another piece of soil.
One needs to stay awake to appreciate what there is out there and clouding ones eyes just makes it harder to see or fools gold.

We say wars are insane and the people who make them are insane but if we still keep searching for a way out, in a land of plenty..........
Is that not insanity too?

When will mankind ever be happy?
Mankind is never happy unless it suffers.
Only when a man suffers, does he see the light and the joy and meaning of life.

Every day we wake up is a blessing. Insanity is a blessing.
It gives us an outlet to laugh........and this is also a blessing.
When you laugh it's because you see the humor, the irony of life.
In humor, you also see the light to guide you.
Instead of a whiner, man takes pride in becoming a survivor.

Celebrating Christmas is a time of joy.
In spite of all the hardships Mary and Joseph encountered, they found hope in a good person who showed them where their baby could be born and they found joy in receiving a healthy baby boy in spite of all the odds against them and people, who came to share in their joy following a brightly lit star that guided them.
Christmas is a miracle story about simple people suffering and surviving
It is a story about the essence and greatness of mankind.

Life has no time for depression.
Every day is something to be celebrated because
every day is waking up to the pangs of new birth.

Blue Spanish Eyes - Elvis Presley