More mashed potatoes for my people....

As the name of this blog indicates, I have different thoughts than normal about events and customs that take place in our culture. This Christmas season I have a gold mine of events that stir the human aspects of this critical nature. I've evolved into a person who is seriously wronged at the social injustices in our western  self-absorbed society of do gooders. What wounds me most deeply is the thin layer of charitable veneer that covers our self-righteous acts of benevolence - the bleeding hearts that take  up the cause of the down trodden seasonally. It's in vogue to do acts of compassion in the middle of December. While the rest of the year the gnarly surface of exposed particle board is the closest we get to charity. Who is this mid- month benevolence for in the end anyway? So we can share at our church and ladies group that we did this act of kindness and show our one-day polished veneer to our friends and co-workers?

Acts of compassion, charitable giving (both financial and labor) should be a life style rather than an event. We sell tickets to an event, but life-style is hard disciplined work and usually costs you more than you expected. The cost is your time, talent and your treasure. Our social network is event based rather than character working itself out through us. We need a cause, an event however short or spectacular it might be. The event is bigger than the real need, and we go home unchanged except for our ego that has just been given a steroid injection and for a few days we retain the swelling of self righteousness.

This coming Saturday I'm cooking at the mission for three hundred people, plus I get to give the Christmas message (ten minutes worth) That is the maximum attention span of a drug addict or prostitute. I hope the dinner lasts longer than the message. This time of year all the one-day helpers show up and get interviewed by the media. Strange how that works. All the guilt is removed with a one day act of volunteering down at the homeless place.

Am I sarcastic? No, not me. Even the management gets all dressed up with the goofy Christmas ties and clean shirts and ridiculous smiles that indicate we are grateful that you showed up today to help. This sort of stuff boils my blood and brings out the worst in me. I will wear my mint flavored shoes on Saturday, as I will in all probability insert them into my mouth. This hyper good deed aspect of Christmas should be criminal.  Why is it that one day out of the year we get benevolent and all teary eyed over the plight of the poor and homeless in our cities? This is the time of year when the media likes to talk about the poor and in doing so everyone else gets involved and a few might do something to help for that ONE day. My conclusion is that most of these people like talking about the poor and homeless, but never actually spend time talking to the poor and homeless.

It is also the time of year that all the charities tell everyone how broke they are. When in reality they are not (I know this for a fact). But this is when the monkey is greased and the organ grinder cranks the handle of charitable greed. I think at Christmas I would make a good Buddhist.