The Problem With Holiday (And Other) Traditions

People can find the Holiday Season to be one of the most depressing times of the entire year. It’s not hard to see why.

Desires are never sharper, families are never fresher in our minds, and the inability to either get what we want; or see the people we love… can sour the experience like rancid milk in the perfect cup of coffee. We want things to be a certain way. When they’re not like that, disappointment is a bitch.

It doesn’t have to be.

In my opinion, traditions have far too much power. Too much heft, too much gravity, too much importance. You do something enough times, people as you why, you shrug and say “It’s Tradition.”

Don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely no beef with getting together as a family for the holidays. Far from it. Traditions have a damnable knack of sending us back in time; to the times that we first employed them. People that we had around then, aren’t around anymore.

We get subconsciously reminded of the way things should be and aren’t.

Know what I say? Tough shit.

I don’t need, in addition to everything else, a calendar day of the year to be set aside as an iron-clad occasion to see my loved ones. If I miss the mark, I miss the mark. I will strive to find, and I encourage you all to do likewise, to see them at other times of the year, for no good reason at all.

“What’s the occasion?” you ask. No occasion. Screw occasions. I don’t want or need one to see someone I usually see a handful of times a year, or only once or twice.

Yes, we have busy lives. Most of the people I care about have very full lives. My brother’s on that list. So are some very dear friends. And you know what? I’m making the time. So is my brother, and so are they. We make the time to see each other and I’m sick of the damned shadow that looms ahead of the Holidays, and glowers while its here.

I’m running out of traditions. Some are nowhere near as important as others. That’s fine. But in the last few years I’ve seen them picked off, one by one. Because we can’t keep to those commitments. It happens.

To hell with it. The only problem with traditions, really, is when you can’t fulfill them. So I say this: Fuck ‘em. Make up new ones. Create an excuse, if you need one, to talk to your friends from college or before. Make it happen. Don’t wait until Christmas to be the catalyst, it has enough on its plate already. Aside from the turkey.

Happy Holidays, folks. My best to you and yours.

You’ll be hearing from me.