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Christmas is less than a week away...commercialism is in full swing...trees are being bought and decorated...cookies are being made...parties are being held...vacations are beginning for some...good cheer is everywhere. Whew!! Oh...lets not forget all the presents...at least for some. Families are planning their get-togethers...at least some are. Baskets of food and presents are being given to the "deserving poor"...whatever that means. My own 14 year old daughter is in the kitchen trying to bake sugar cookies. We put the lights on the tree this morning...the rest to go on tonight after my wife gets home. And here I sit writing this sarcastic commentary...wishing it would all go away.

I know, I know...don't spoil it for anyone, don't intrude into their happiness and "spirit" of the season, eh? Who do I think I am, huh? If I don't like it...just go along and keep my "negative" views to myself...right? Well...I can't. While yes, I can understand how some people really enjoy all this (even I will on THE morning when I see my 2 year old so excited---hey, at least I'm honest), but the hypocrisy doesn't go away. The stench of false fronts, insincere greetings and wishes, debt-generated worry, and false religiosity still permeates everything about all this. Why can't I just enjoy myself? Why can't I shut-up? Why? I know too much, that's why.

Merry Humbug to you and yours...ugh!!!

The Millennium? Whose millennium? Which calendar? Which culture's standards and traditions? Hell, even the president of this country has admitted that the real 1000 year period called the 20th Century won't end until the stroke of midnight...NEXT YEAR!!! That's right...I'm one of those picky people who know and accept that since the Gregorian Calander started with 1...not 0...the 21st Century won't actually begin until January 1, 2001 (when 1000 years will have been COMPLETED...rather than the 1000th year merely beginning on 1/1/00). Oh...but what difference does accurate counting make when the "masses" see the 2 0 0 0 pop up and they act as if its the end of the last year of the latest 1000 years? Damn it...it SAYS 2000 doesn't it? The 19.. is gone...its the new millennium...go away you sticklers for the truth. Hell, Clinton said exactly that...if the "people" say its the new "one" then it will be.

Well, I guess it really doesn't matter. What this illustrates is the power of "defining the situation" and then living AS IF that definition is true. The fact is...it will become true...that's the power we as humans really have...whether as individuals or as groups. Nevermind that the logical extension of living this kind of lie is insanity. And when as Orwell portrayed in 1984 for us, people make that small willful decision to forget the lie...well, we live the lie as if we were sane. There's thousands of people in mental institutions doing the exact same thing...hell, there's millions living outside these institutions doing the same thing about a myraid of things. Why should truth (small t...notice) make a difference?

Likewise, it won't make a hill of beans to me when the "end of the world" doesn't come at midnight 12/31/99. However, it WILL make a difference to me if people who are defining it as such march to my house and burn us at the stake. It will if these kinds of "believers" disrupt what passes for normality. There's that power of defining for you again. See...it won't make a bit of difference whether the "end" really comes or not...whether the "savior" comes or not. What will make a difference is the people acting like it has...or rationalizing why it didn't...but certainly will...say amen.

So, what a happy time it is this "season", huh? Millions of people without the slightest amount of joy...millions fretting about saving their asses...millions more pretending there's nothing amiss in our society, at least not on the night of 12/24 or the day of 12/25, that is, right? I feel sad...sad that we don't have real happiness based on real human relations. But who am I? Nobody...and everybody.

Merry humbug and Happy "as if" to you.

Please, try to refrain from saying "see you next century"...okay? Do it for me.

Thanks...:(((

David H. Kessel

:))

P.S. My mother always thought I was "just terrible", too...lol