Santa’s Little Helper
The Artist D
It’s that time of year again. Oh, ladies and gentlemen it’s the Holiday Season! What the hell does that even mean anymore? The holiday season is a season full of holidays. We in the U.S.A. deprive ourselves of days off most of the year until October, November and December. A holiday is but a day off or at least it’s supposed to be. Yet we have setup holidays in which we get no rest. Finally after spring and summer have exhausted us we get several sets of four days off of work (depending your occupation). But wait, there’s more! Surprise! We would like you to spend your four days off by entertaining family who may annoy you and go further into debt buying people gifts. What a great way to spend your days off relaxing. How did we get roped into that?
We have now entered into the Christmas season which should mean nothing to anyone, but yet it means a lot of things to everybody. I’ve outgrown it all. I was born a Catholic and was brainwashed into your standard Christmas holiday season. There were presents around the six foot tall Christmas tree which mom and I decorated. The halls were decked with glimmering lights. Warmth and happiness abounded in your average corrupt Catholic home back in the day. Don’t get me wrong we were happy and joyous. Yet we can’t forget I was stuffed in the closet as a little gay-boy-transgender-girl desperately wishing I could express myself. Mom was depressed and repressed by the society around her. Dad worked his ass off making near minimum wage to support his traditional family and looked forward to a ten cent raise every year. We can never forget that the good old days were good and merry, but reality flirted from the sidelines at the delusional family unit.
I grew up and went from Catholic to Christian to Wiccan to Satanist to Anarchist to Atheist and beyond. As I changed so did my perception of the holidays. I loved it because how can you not when as a child you get wrapped in the warm loving blanket of mom, dad and Santa Clause? It’s pushing something good away in the hopes to get something better. I went on to celebrating the holidays as a non-religious person which is difficult if you pay attention to the religious around you. Then I celebrated the festival of lights. That was even harder because then I found myself trying to ignore Jesus Christ and Santa Clause.
The unique thing about me that I don’t see in the masses is that I get tired of everything. I’m not sure if it’s because I have a unique ability to do so or because people don’t understand they have a choice. Do you know you have a choice to stop having Christmas? Did it ever cross your mind that you can live your life completely free of holidays? It’s like asking a person if they knew rules were really just made up things by uncomfortable people.
For many years now I have lived my life without holidays. When I have four days off of work they’re actually days off. My days off are devoid of family, gifts, decorations and faux smiles. These holidays for other people are just like any other day in life. I just don’t have to get up at 4 a.m. and drag myself into the tar pits of work. This is both wonderful and wonderfully depressing. It’s depressing because it is reality. Life without holidays and such special events makes one appreciate why we have them. Once upon a time many years ago man was bored and he enjoyed spending time with other beings of his kind. A light bulb formed over his head and he proposed everyone get together for a potluck. Over the time this earnest potluck turned into a mega media monster enslaving people with tradition, religion and debt. What was once a good old time is now often a forced waste of time.
On the other side of the coin if you suck out the horrible premade holidays it makes you want to create your own. Those of us without holidays have made our own days that mean something. Suddenly you’re encouraged to get together with people you love at other times of the year. If there was no Christmas, Thanksgiving and family reunions you would find yourself wanting to have a big dinner in February where everyone just happens to show up with gifts. It’s an organic gathering! You’ve made your own holidays and now they actually mean something.
The moral to this story is that you actually got some choices on planet Earth. You may accept their template. That is, a template which may be quite boring. Then again you could create your own template. Make your own box! It’s all a frame of mind and yours should be spilling out of the frame. Build your own life and your own holidays instead of having them built for you.
The Artist D is executive editor of Fourculture Magazine. He is also unearthing the underground as host of The Fabulous D Show every Sunday night at 7 PM EST at TheArtistD.com.
Category: Transgender Opinion
About the Author (Author Profile)
The Artist D is a true raconteur and provocateur! He has been performing online since the mid 1990s. A relic from the cam show age before MySpace was any space. Author of In Bed with Myself, an autobiographical tale of transgenderism and Internet celebrity. Executive Editor of Fourculture Magazine and host of the Kawfeehaus podcast.Subscribe
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Artist D: Thanks for thinking out of the box, and promoting conversation about holidays in general. We do take things for granted and give little through to thinking about some of the things we do. So weither people agree or disagree with your option, thanks for promoting the conservation. After reading your article I see one theme that stands out. People wanting to do for others. Christmas gifts for others, gatherings and meals for others. If we put a name on it and call it a holiday or don’t put a name on it, does it change the event? People enjoy doing for others, it gives us some personal satisfaction. Through in a little love and mix it all up and out comes something called a holiday. So if you don’t have traditional holidays or create your own, I hope you find some love in them for yourself. We do need to have some “our time” or rest time and that should fit into our time off from work, we need to re-entergize our self and slow down once in a while, I agree.