I’m not all bah humbug... honest
With Trump as person of the year and ‘post-truth’ as word of the year, my letters of the year are W, T and F.
’TWAS the week before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, because they were laid low with various respiratory illnesses. In these modern, troubled times, the Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol needs a thorough reworking. In the original, coldhearted businessman Ebenezer Scrooge is shamed out of a life of greed and selfishness by a series of ghosts who help him realise what a terrible human he is. At the end, he transforms to feel love and goodwill to all, gives his overworked employee with a sick kid a raise, and resolves that for the rest of his days, he’ll carry in his heart the true meaning of Christmas. Today, Scrooge would just end up thankful that he’s not one of the poor 123RF people, and buy another house.
Then he’d run for office and probably win, making himself more comfortable in the process and wondering why the poor folk in town couldn’t raise themselves up out of the gutter like he did.
In 2016, the story of Jesus and his parents bedding down in a stable wouldn’t be sad because at least it has a roof, there are lambs to eat if they need and even a stable is preferable to sleeping on the family camel.
As you can tell, a week out from the big day, I’m struggling a bit to get into the festive season vibe.
Instead of thoughts turning to delightful things I could do to mark this special time, my focus is on just getting to the end in one piece.
I’m not trying to be all bah humbug, it’s just that after a 2016 like this, I’m more worried about whether this will be the last ever Christmas before Donald Trump’s son borrows his Dad’s pin number and accidentally sets off the nuclear arsenal.
Perhaps I should just stop reading the news.
On the other hand, if you’re on social media, you no longer need the news to give you the facts. In fact, you don’t even need facts any more. You can just make stuff up until it suits the way you want to have about the world.
Because that’s what Trump does.
With him being Time magazine’s Person of the Year, and ‘‘post-truth’’ being the word of the year, my nomination for letters of the year are: W, T and F.
Put together, those three letters form the most appropriate response to 2016.
Given all the collective gasps after so much shocking news, it sounded like the whole planet was having an asthma attack.
I thought 2015 was bad – and it really was. But I fondly look back on it as peaceful compared to the escaped asylum patient of a year that 2016 has proved to be.
Still, it’s Christmas, which means that all the tension of the year is supposed to magically become less relevant while you eat more than normal and pretend to be in a good mood.
At least we made it to here. Many didn’t.
Strip away the over-eating and decorations and underneath it all, the best thing about this time of year is feeling grateful to be around. Even if it’s just to complain about the year.
All the very best for this holiday season, New Zealand. Love yous.