SPIRIT

I think I say it every year, but that's because I mean it every year.  One of the most inscrutable things about the Christmas season, particularly the 'week of,' is the sheer joy of the average person on the street.  People you've never seen before - never met - don't know - will smile at you for nothing.  They'll hold doors open for you for nothing.  They'll start friendly conversations over nothing.  


It's just weird - and maybe a little regrettable - that three days after Christmas, it's a different story.  Perhaps it's a little passe to remark about that, but it seems to worsen with each passing year.  It ramps up starting sometime around Black Friday on Thanksgiving at midnight and we enjoy almost a whole month of this other-worldly amazing attitude -- and then, around December 28th ... CRASH.  

Scrooge is not a person so much as it is a behavior - a spirit.  Let's keep the spirit of Christ with us throughout all of 2012, so when next Christmas rolls around 362 days from now, it won't feel so wonderfully strange and then three days later, so all too familiar.


And be blessed.