Overwhelmed!
- jrblackburnsmith
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
The holidays are overwhelming. The older I get, the more overwhelming they become. I think it is because I am confronted with so many tasks that I am not very good at or that I dread, so I put them off until it is just too late. Procrastination is my enemy, but it masquerades as my friend as it spins it sorry tales of unlimited time and opportunity tomorrow or the next day, and I believe it every time.
Let's start with shopping. Denise starts Christmas shopping in December--for the next year--while I sit and wait for inspiration to hit me. I shop the way I write: no outline, no grand plan or scheme, just a vision in my head of someone smiling happily on Christmas morning. Unlike writing, I don't force myself to sit down every day and keep working at it until I come up with a solution. I blame my upbringing. As kids we had more than one Christmas gift that came from the truck stop at I-71 and Rt 42 that was purchased on Christmas morning. Dad was the most type A person I ever met, but for him that meant believing he could get significantly more accomplished in a given time span than was physically possible.
My brothers and I would pool are money to shop for our folks and grandparents, hitting the mall sometime between December 22nd and 24th and wander from store to store until we found something for everyone. It was a precarious way to live, but we always pulled it off. The internet should solve all those problems, but it doesn't. Now you have to allow time for shipping, so you are dead in the water if you wait until December 22nd. And shipping, like procrastination, lies with a silver tongue. "Free delivery tomorrow if purchased in the next 2 hours and 17 minutes," it shouts, and both the shopper and the retailer agree to pretend that promise is real.
Once the gifts arrive, then you have to wrap them. I will spend an hour organizing the empty hangers in my closet (I can't walk by them if they are out of order) but asking me to take two minutes to wrap a present is torture. We already know it is going to look like crap, so why even bother? (Writer's note: there is a Machiavellian strategy here of ordering gifts that you know won't arrive until after Christmas; then you can hand them over without bothering to wrap them. Make sure you have overfilled everyone's stockings, however, or it is a disaster.) I have had decades to learn that I should wrap presents gradually, over a period of weeks (please note the problem with shopping outlined above) but I still end up every year in a marathon wrapping session that races into the small hours of the night. (Writer's note: since I get up at 4am every day to write, staying up 'til 2 wrapping presents is not a successful adaptation.) Things get worse if you are a wrapper who needs alcohol to help you wrap.
Whoever came up with the scotch tape dispenser, anyway? Could they not have managed to make something that holds a reasonable amount of tape, and actually tears the tape neatly when needed? I feel like I throw away more tape than makes it on the package. And why do some wrapping paper companies put a nice grid for cutting your paper on the back and others make you freestyle? No one can cut wrapping paper in a straight line at 1:30 in the morning after a couple of fingers of scotch, even with the cutting grid on the back. It just won't happen.
By the way, gift bags are not a real solution. First, they make them in terrible sixes that don't fit anything. Have you ever tried to put a shovel in a gift bag? Not going to happen. Second, then you have to use tissue paper to cover the gift. Tissue paper is thin and overpriced. You need more than should be necessary to hide the damn gift and it is impossible to refold the paper neatly if you happened to grab more than you needed (unlikely, I know.)
This is why I like Thanksgiving so much. Let's just eat!
We cannot abide cruelty, especially in a period of time where cruelty seems to be the point for so many people. Please remember the people around you that need help and offer it with an open heart. Find joy in your life by offering it to others.
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