Train of thought.

The past week and a half have been a combination of working from home and holidays. Yesterday I twice tried to get to work. Only to have trains cancelled on me and had to work from home. This morning I hauled my arse out of bed at 06:30 and got down to the station for 7. only to find the 3 trains within the next 20 were all cancelled as was the first train of the day. It seemed a great idea to get the bus, this meant waiting half an hour, this was preferable to standing around in a temperature of -6C for another hour waiting for 2 trains both of which would be cattletastic!

Oops! 1.5 miles in 40 mins, 10 mins of which appeared to be the driver stopping for a fag. The rest of it seemed to traffic dancing round fuckwits in transit vans who had parked in retarded places blocking the road in one direction the previous evening and who were now trying to leave.

All this sitting about on a bus has let my thoughts wander and a rather apt song has just come on, Half Man Half Biscuit’s National Shite Day. I was thinking about a message I sent yesterday about Christmas. I described it as something like ‘pagan festival stolen by Christians’. It was intended as tongue-in-cheek. While I do not agree with usurping Yule with their own cause for celebration, I wonder why they haven’t decided it to try something similar with Ramadan and forcing Easter to coincide with it. before anyone says anything I know past behaviour is not always a benchmark for current behaviour.*

I think it is important for people to know where the true story of the festive season is from. The story of the birth of Jesus is part of it but it is not the root of it. People should be aware of this. Knowing that Father Christmas traditionally dressed in green and not red like Coca Cola’s marketing have had the majority of us believe for years. Then again I think people need to learn how use a computer and be given a course in Internet etiquette before being allowed near a web site. So what do I know?

I see Xmas as the time of year where the word can shut down for a day in an increasingly 24/7/365 culture. A time where we can just enjoy ourselves, not be arseholes and relax. I do like the decorations, the lights, the atmosphere that goes along with it all. I don’t like expectations the festive season puts upon us, both financially and particularly in terms of relationships. I’m not going to say it is a time for families, because it isn’t always, we don’t always want to spend time with our own or with the in-laws. It should be spent with people we care about, and if that involves in-laws then great, if it doesn’t that’s also great.

My only wishes are that we all become a bit more caring and courteous, stop taking everything on face value and look little deeper into things, be willing to learn. Also be willing to work for something if we want it, to help try and reverse the me-me-me and now culture we seem to be cultivating and to show others we have more
intelligence and stronger values than the dismissive, selfish, dumbed down news guzzling, reality TV loving fools that so many seem to be devolving into.

I know those wishes aren’t likely to come true, maybe it’s enough to have hope and an optimistic (if slightly misguided) outlook for the future. Welcome to my world.

* Except for repetitive patterns of behaviour.