Another Christmas

A benefit of writing every day, and keeping a chronological record of what one has written, is the ability to look backward from year to year to annually check one’s state of mind.

This morning I looked back a year to 2014 and found that things haven’t changed so much. I still have the same wishes and dreams. The same obstacles confront me. I feel the same competing emotions. Though I do not feel that time stands still, certain elements of one’s personality seem to be etched in rock, impossible to change even with diamond-tipped drills and the passion to break that rock into a thousand pieces.

I looked back another year and found the same man who’s writing this post wrote a post on Christmas Day in 2013. How do I know he’s the same man? Well, here’s a brief excerpt from the post, which asked the question: “Why not make Mexican-Indian fusion sometime soon?” I responded to that question by suggesting some possibilities:

  • lamb vindaloo tamales;
  • chicken vindaloo tacos;
  • tandoori carnitas;
  • bhindi masala burritos;
  • picadillo samosas;
  • arroz con gobhi Manchurian (to really mix it up);
  • baigan guisada;
  • biryani con camarones.

I wish all who read this message, and all who don’t, a happy holiday season…a Merry Christmas…and I hope the upcoming year allows you to turn the rocks in your path into smooth sand. And, if you get hungry for something unusual, something spicy, something adventuresome, think of me, would you?

About John Swinburn

"Love not what you are but what you may become."― Miguel de Cervantes
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3 Responses to Another Christmas

  1. robin andrea says:

    One of the interesting things about being brought up as non-religious daughter of non-religious Jewish parents is that we never celebrated Christmas or Hanukkah. This was a time of the year we waited for school to let out and for snow to come. We built snow forts and snowmen. We had snowball fights and went ice skating. We never had a Christmas tree. We never strung lights or lit a menorah. It is incredibly freeing to be able to enjoy the solstice and the return of the sun without the crazy insanity this holiday season has become.

    Season’s Greetings to you and your beautiful wife.

  2. You, my friend, need a platform! I wish you had a place where your disciples could gather to read your thoughts, someplace and more accessible than searching through old FB posts that quickly get hidden in the detritus of selfies and political diatribes proffered by right-wing non-thinkers.

    Truth be told, I share your frustration with the artificiality of what Christmas has become. I used to see the season not as a string of days bound together by their common religious theme but, instead, as a time of year to reflect and to plan how to make the world a better place. But that view of the world through rose-tinted lenses has been ruined by people wielding black paint that adheres to those lenses. I anxiously await learning more about your plans for next year, my friend! Tell me more!

  3. jserolf says:

    You know what, Partner? I am sick and tired of Christmas. I’m serious. Sick and tired of the same old shit each and every year. No, I haven’t been drinking and I don’t think the feeling/thought is coming from anything “Scroogey.” In fact, just had a wonderful cup of fresh ground coffee and breakfast on this “another Christmas Day,” and suddenly have come upon the real Epiphany — the real December 25th birth/thought/moment of clarity.

    I’m tired of the same old songs, from White Christmas to Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, tired of the same tree that gets cut and hauled into my home, tired of stupid stockings, sticky candy, and leaving cookies for some make believe fat-ass more likely spawned from the guts of money groping capitalism than any Christian thought.

    I’m tired of the same, pandering, phony, bullshit love that most people espouse for about 2 weeks, then stow away with the bulbs and breakable ornaments and made-up, top of the tree star that came from somewhere in your childhood.

    I’m tired of ringing bells, crowded stores, dangerous streets and highways held in check by selfish I-phone enthusiasts and their stupid selfies — and all under the cloud of alcoholic men and women gone greedy and piggish.

    I’m tired of lying to children. I’m tired of a world that has no peace or even any real goodwill toward men.

    This is the last Christmas for me, Big John….the last one I’ll ever practice again and again and again.

    Next year will be something real….something different….a true mark up and foundational point in what will become an evolutionary change in a world gone mad

    …..to really … really …. ante up!.

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