A little bit late this month, because there is so MUCH TO DO. Why does everyone want everything before Christmas? The work is non-stop, and on top of that I'm expected to go shopping.
Never mind - the good bits are seeing friends and going to shows with the kids. I don't wish I had kids of my own, but I would hate not to be involved with the ones I've got. We seem to find it hard - still - to make real alternatives to the nuclear family. Most of need an extended family that is not our family. Just as in Dickens the real families are always the pretend ones - that is, the place where love and generosity reside - so for me, closeness and happiness has come outside of the obvious.
But perhaps good things are always outside of the obvious.
I am going to New York for Christmas, which is not something I have done before. I'm told that there is no better place, because it's genuinely multi-cultural, and so I can eat Chinese food for my Christmas Dinner.
The sad part is that we have to call it Holidays, because Christmas leaves out too many people. I'd rather think that whatever the religion, we could all be included, especially at a moment of birth and hope, which is what Christmas is about.
If I have a wish, it's that we shouldn't be caught in religious wars. Religion itself is not at fault - we like excuses for war, and we need to feel in the right.
Have you all seen Michael Moore's BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE? If not, please go, it is an extraordinary piece of work - not easy but necessary.
Friends tell me it's being shown in the States, but not in mainstream cinemas. It's a close look at what happened when two teenagers went into Columbine High School, and gunned down teachers and pupils. It's a question about gun murders in America - why are there so many? - and it's a look at how the media whips up fear. According to Moore, violent crime has been falling in the States for years, but media reporting of such crimes has risen by 600%
If you can't get to the film - buy his book Stupid White Men. It will make a suitable antidote to too much chocolate in your stocking.
What else is great? TALK TO HER, of course, just opened in the States, and out for a while here. I shall be taking a posse of small boys, including myself, to see the new James Bond movies. The only difference is that they can have popcorn and I shall have my usual champagne in a mineral water bottle.
It's the festive season - right?
Apparently I am not allowed to use the phrase 'You Guys' - got a long email castigating my failures here. Well, I always get emails doing just that, but in this case, you guys, too bad. This is a letter to friends, not my next book, and it's MY site, so, we'll relax.
I hope all of you will do something reflective over Christmas. The commercialism is depressing, but we can fight it in our own way, by remembering what the time id for, and finding a way out of the noise.
There is so much noise in our lives - noise, no time, no space; we have to fight to make those things happen. We all suffer from a bad combination of work ethic - which says we have to be doing useful things all day long, unless we are actually asleep (and some people only seem to sleep so that they can then usefully analyse their dreams). We need more play, more imaginative freedom, and it is not a waste or a luxury to make time for those things.
Without play and freedom, the machine owns us. We become the machine.
If you come back into the site around the 20th, you'll find a new short story especially for Christmas. It's called The Mistletoe Bride, and it's a cover version of an old legend.
You know I like to re-work what exists.
As the year ends, let's do what we can to make the world a better place. We can all do something, however small, and that's our gift. It may mean helping a neighbour or a stranger. It may mean giving money or time to a charity. You'll know what it is, because there is always an inner prompt; the voice we often muffle because it isn't convenient.
Miracles are never convenient - that's part of the message of Christmas.
We can make our own, and we can make one for someone else. Try.
So I'll leave you now, unless we meet by chance at Heathrow Terminal 4 on the 21st of December. The shortest day of the year - a good time to cheat time and gain 5 hours.
To everyone - peace on earth, goodwill, love. test
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