Only the lonely

I hope everyone had a great holiday and if you didn't - well - at least it's over for another year. Mine was quiet. I only spent a couple of hours at the family homestead doing the present thing but skipped out before dinner. I wasn't in the mood for a big meal and I like to give them some alone time. They get so little of it to spend together.

I thought it was symbolic of the spirit of the season this year that the radio station I listen to my car, which has been playing Christmas carols since Halloween - no exaggeration - stopped playing them yesterday. I'm guessing because the shopping season is over.

I meant to post more last night but I got caught up in holiday movies instead. I love that schmaltzy stuff. I was glad they played White Christmas but I was even more thrilled to discover Disney was airing Cinderella. It was the one with Brandy and Whitney Houston, which is not my favorite. I much prefer the Leslie Warren version but I love the music and it was fun to be home alone and belt out the songs along with the characters.

Rob Smith has a post up about loneliness on the holidays that put me into sort of a introspective mood. I'd have to admit that even though I've spent the holidays alone for many years now, this my loneliest holiday in a long time because I'm so far away from my long time circle of friends. It's not like I would have shown up at the many places I usually get invited to, but not having the option underscored the current solitary nature of my life. It's the down side of being single; not having someone around to share the special moments with. It doesn't make me sad, I rather like solitude but it did leave me feeling a little disconnected.

Still, I have a good enough life and can't complain. I couldn't help but think of those who probably had a much sadder Christmas. The Katrina victims, who are still displaced all over the country. The families of the fallen soldiers who will never have the whole family together again. All the drug war prisoners who will miss their children growing up because of hysterical sentencing out of proportion with their "offenses." All the terminally ill who won't be able to get their medicine because of the DEA's pre-holiday busts of medical marijuana co-ops. All the people who were laid off by the mega-corps, who were let go in such a Scroogish manner to preserve profits.

Then there's the unfortunate temp worker at CNN who lost his job for making one exasperated comment about the infamous Cheney X after the right wing blogs made such a stink about it. I hope they're proud that they took down a minimum wage worker during the holiday season.

And here's to those "compassionate Christians" who declared a war on Christmas greetings and, thanks to their hysterical ranting, got poor Kirby fired from WalMart for actually answering an email using historical facts. I doubt your Jesus is impressed but somewhere yesterday, Rick Dobson raised his glass of Dom Perignon to "all the kooks that keep him in business." He's talking about you and I hope you're all proud of yourselves for turning a sacred holiday of love and giving into something so hateful.

Kirby, wherever you are, I hope your holidays will be filled with joy in proportion to the vitriol you endured for telling the truth.