The Holiday Spirit and Other Ailments

December's been rough. First came the overwhelming fatigue, where staying up to watch television beyond 8PM is almost too much. After a week of that, I came down with something. It started with the loss of appetite and a general crappy feeling, closely followed by a weird feeling in the throat that, by morning, reminded me of a wool sock stuck on the left side at the base of my throat. Two days of rest and I was on the mend.

Until I went holiday shopping. It was December 15 and I'd not started my holiday shopping, so a trip to Redmond Town Center seemed imperative. I left the house around 1:15 feeling perky. When I returned around 3:30, I was crashing hard. Two more days of rest and I was able to make it in to work for Tuesday meetings, but not through a whole day.

Last Wednesday, I did a cost/benefit analysis of going into work vs. staying home and resting. Staying home won out, and I made it through the rest of the work feeling more and more normal. Now, I just have a lingering cough that strikes in the evening.

As for the holiday spirit, I'm not sure when that really got me. I found myself wanting to listen to Christmas music, largely to add some variety to what was already in my head. The one time I really tried, though, the station was way too into the whole Jesus thing for me.

Being Jewish, I eschewed the whole Christmas thing for years, and am only really getting comfortable with it lately. I remember one year when I was 4 or 5, I went with friends to a mall. They were taken to see Santa Claus, and I was encouraged to go as well. Santa asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said that I was Jewish so I didn't celebrate Christmas. Santa told me it didn't matter if I was Jewish, I could still tell him what I wanted.

It's that spirit that I've come to embrace in the past few years. America celebrates Christmas, and mostly in a way that has very little to do with Christianity. People throughout history have celebrated this dark time of year with lots of eating and drinking and socializing, whether it is in the name of the sun, Dionysus, Jesus Christ, or commercialism. Isn't it better if we can just come together and enjoy than worry about what having eggnog and a cookie with other people means? After all, I've heard a lot of good things about Jesus so I'm cool with going to his birthday party.

Fresh

It's December 1st. I'll admit November got away from me, probably from early on in the month. Perhaps it was the 3 vacation days, along with being sick at one point and incredibly tired this past week. But with a new month it is easy to think about taking the fresh start and being better about getting things done.

It's been snowing most of the afternoon, although that may be changing to rain as I type. I love falling snow. Something about the air being full of visible, solid things. It changes the space of the everyday things around us, and in that way it is magical. And it evens out what was there under a layer of fresh whiteness.

I took a walk in the snow. I had a library book (Robert Crais' The Forgotten Man) due today. Rather than renewing it and returning it at some later date, I decided to just return it (fresh start and all). I walked down to the lake to follow it around to the library. There were a few walkers out, most with either dogs or umbrellas; some with both. There were determined looking runners. Most people smiled at me, sharing the magic of a somewhat rare Seattle moment.

December is off to a good start.