Without reiterating tired rhetoric of religious debate behind the meaning of Christmas, I would like to dive into the spirit of the holidays.  It seems that after the inaugural celebration of witches and associated occultism, we rush headfirst into a jovial praise of spiritual birth and rekindling.  With November here, Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  A time for family to come together and visit those memories we have so readily lain to rest with each passing day.  It seems that life is continually moving at the speed of light; we don't have the time of day to spend with those of which we are closest to.  It seems ironic, the distance that grows between siblings and generations alike as we grow older.  I guess, in the sense that we soon begin to establish our own foundations and families – it makes some sense.  In less than two weeks we are blindsided by this celebration of oversized and over-drugged game-birds where tradition and informality collide.  But what of it? We are so consumed by our commercialist ways, our consumerist ways, that we have devoured the very spirit of the holidays.  Nothing remains but its bare, unidentifiable skeleton.  What we give thanks to, has become watered down to nothing more than the ethereal possessions we place in our lives in order to fool ourselves in believing that we are indeed, happy. 

And with the passing of our grace, we are bestowed with yet another diminishing anniversary.  We supposedly commemorate the birth of a great child who has taught us many things.  And we toast to this remembrance with gifts, in allusion to the wise men that traveled across vast countries in order to glance upon our own joyous gift from the heavens above.  But again, the celerity of our existence remains our bane.  We spend our life savings on lavish but vacant gifts.  They are void of the symbols of our appreciation of one another.  Our personal relationships become diffused into impersonal exchanges of materialism. 

No spirit.  With this, I will end it by saying that a thoughtful gift can be as easy as a hug or a smile to a stranger, a coworker, friend, or family member who has just been missing their mark this year.  As we move forward into the next, we can provide the strength and guidance that we all need in our lives with something less than a dollar.  And it'll mean so much more.