I don’t know whose idea it was originally, but for the past few years there have been bulbs on the Christmas tree in the reception area of our office with our names on them. That tree is up now, so I guess that means it’s the “holiday” season. I’m a little cynical about this holiday, the way Lucy Van Pelt is when she says, “It’s all run by a big eastern syndicate.” In reality, it’s run by a global syndicate. Merchants set their profits based on Christmas sales. A “bad” Christmas is one when you can’t buy your kids enough stuff, and a good one is measured by how much crap is under the tree on the 24th.

If it was up to me, Christmas would be a day of prayer and fasting, or better yet, a day of volunteering at the soup kitchen or picking up garbage on the side of the road. And if it was up to me, we’d do that every day anyway. Hmm. I think I just canceled Christmas.