Every year Christmas races up, and people go out and buy, buy buy. The commercials tell us that to really give from the heart is to give a 50" plasma TV. If you really love that special someone, then nothing says it like a $3000 diamond necklace. Buy This! Save Now! Boxing Day Specials BEFORE Christmas! Buy! Buy! Buy!
It's enough to make your head explode.
Christmas is about love, caring, compassion and selflessness. Nowhere in the origins of Christmas was there a part that said "And Jesus didn't love the people that got him cheap gifts". The Christmas story is about love, no matter the person's class or status. Homeless, or living in a mansion, all people deserve respect, caring, love and compassion.
During the Christmas season, please take time to help others, love your family (even the brother or sister that you don't talk to because of some long ago family feud) and help keep the spirit of Christmas from becoming yet another tool in marketing campaign of a big box retailer. Do something unexpected. Give a gift that really is from the heart, and isn't measured in it's resale value on eBay. Make a card, give a portrait of you to your parents or grandparents that don't see you nearly enough. Give a gift that has love built in, not one that only has room for "Love" on the card. In doing so, you too will get a great gift, the gift of happiness, as the person who receives your gift will smile, and give you love back, often multiplied.
After you have spent Christmas with your family, or quietly in your own way, by all means - get out there, and take every advantage of these retailers's Boxing Day sales, and get yourself that 50" plasma, or whatever you thought would be nice to have. But know in your heart that you have helped keep the REAL Christmas alive a little bit longer against the tide of commercialism.
I will be in Hong Kong and China from Boxing Day until Mid January, so I hope you and your families all will have a Merry Christmas, and a very Happy and Safe New Year!
I'll be posting some updates to my blog
http://free-blog-site.com/dragonspeed (hopefully) and pics as we travel!