The following is a Panama Holiday Tradition. Copied and pasted from past years......with a few thoughts that seem to get added each time I re-post this. Surprisingly, the annual holiday funk has not set in yet. I am eagerly awaiting it's arrival. Perhaps it's because I can't seem to use up all my vacation this year...So I haven't had enough time alone with my thoughts to allow the funk to return full-force. Whatever the reason, enjoy these rants. Take them in the spirit they're meant. I love Rudolph. I never miss it. I own the DVD. I will expect the usual comments.
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Wednesday, November 28, 2007
It's Christmas and I want everything.
Current mood: Joyful
It's the holiday season. I survived Thanksgiving. For that, I'm thankful. Gone are the days of leaving family get-togethers to slink off to Perkins for holiday pancakes because you can't stand the fighting. Now, it's holiday buffets with radio orphans. Good times. Anywho, my holiday funk set in back in late August. I haven't totally shaken it...just learned to accept it....and move on with my life. With that in mind, below is my annual Christmas blog (with a few added thoughts). Enjoy. Leave comments. Abuse me. Embrace me. Laugh with me or at me. Love me, hate me. Praise me, Curse me. Admire me, Pity me. It's a free country. BTW, I know I'm cynical. Buy me presents.
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December 5, 2006
Christmas is not my favorite time of year. I won't go into all the reasons why, but I'm not fond of most holidays. What I do love are the Christmas Specials. Frosty, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Charlie Brown....and my favorite is Rudolph! But what amazes me is the message that Rudolph sends. Think about it. Here's Rudolph... a pretty normal reindeer, I guess. But he has one particular thing that makes him unique. So what do his parents do? They decide to hide it. Make him feel ashamed of his "deformity". Now that's good parenting. So Rudy goes off to play in the reindeer games. And he's good. Maybe the best one there! But what happens? He's outed as having a red nose. So what happens? Do they accept him as he is? Do they send the message of love that the Christmas Season is supossed to represent? Hell no! They discriminate against him and kick him out. They'll never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games. Even Santa joins in by lamenting that it was too bad because he had such a good take off. Thanks Santa. So Rudolph is shunned and runs away. Sure, adventure follows...Rudolph meets up with the gay elf who was equally discriminated against by his peers. They go to the island of unwanted toys. Affectionately known as "misfits". C'mon. A Charlie in the Box? A squirt gun that shoots jelly? Sounds to me like it was the island for toys who were given to stupid children. If you don't want a Charlie in the Box, change it's freaking name, Einstien. Put water in the squirt gun. Take the friggin cowboy off the ostrich and put it on a friggin horse. Geesh.....Dumb ass kids. Anyway, I'm getting off the subject........Later, the big blizzard hits. That's when Santa and the rest of Christmas Town figure out that they can use Rudolph's abnormality to their benefit. Christmas is saved and we all live happily ever after.
So the moral of the story is....it's Ok to discriminate against someone who is different than you....unless you can find a way to exploit that difference for your own good. Wow...what a great lesson to be teaching the kids at Christmas! Discrimination and exploitation...I guess that's the true meaning of Christmas! They even hate the Bumble Snowmonster until they realize he can put the star on top of the Christmas tree.
I guess the only beautiful message of love and joy in this story was the relationship between Yukon Cornelius and the elf. But most of that was edited out.
...And yet I love the show. It's just good silly fun. And it's got lots of quotable lines.
"This fog is as thick as peanut butter" "Don't you mean pea soup" "You eat what you like, I'll eat what I like"
"Never knew a bumble snowmonster yet that would pass on a pork dinner for deer meat"
"Let's be independent together"
....and I am totally unbeatable at Rudolph trivia!
So I pretty much officially slipped into my Christmas funk last week. So I'll spend the next 20 days trying to find ways to beat it by doing things that make myself feel good. And they're just stupid little things like buying someone lunch or leaving a large tip or secretly buying a present for someone that would never expect it. Then as the Christmas Season ends, it leads into the New Year and my annual New Year's Resolution to try to be a better person. I think we can always strive to do better.
So my advice for the holiday season and beyond is simple.....try to be a little bit nicer tomorrow than you were today.
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Happy Holidays
PJ
What exactly makes the little doll a "Misfit" toy? That she's on the island with the other Misfits? And did you notice how Santa "delivers" those Misfits? He has an elf handing them umbrellas and dropping them out the sleigh. Nice! But I love watching Rudolph, too, and also own the DVD.