Post Christmas blues and all those garbage
It is quite unfortunate and even ironical, that many heart attacks and strokes are recorded in the morning after Christmas. Hospital emergency rooms are fully occupied not just by victims of firecrackers and indiscriminate firing by some wayward police or military elements and civilian criminals. There are an inordinate number of cerebro-vascular attacks, secondary to over-eating, too much drinking, lack of sleep and over-indulgence in lusts and gluttony. Many Christians are spending the days after Christmas in hospitals, funeral parlors, police stations, prosecutors' offices, and courts.
What is visibly deplorable are the tons and tons of garbage that could only be indicative the peoples' total lack of discipline and respect for the environment, for others and for themselves. Most people throw away their trash anywhere and everywhere. They do not care at all. And yet, when floods come later due to, among other causes, clogged canals and esteros, they are the first ones to complain and lambast the government for not cleaning up the mess. Garbage, by the way, is the outward manifestation of the inner dirt in the minds and hearts of men and women. Garbage inside, garbage outside.
The mystery of all mysteries however is that these same people who inflict damage to the environment, when around here in our country, are very clean, sanitary and law-abiding when they reside in other countries. They obey the laws when they are in Singapore, Dubai, London, or San Francisco. They are careful to segregate their wastes when they are in Europe or in America but here right in his own backyard and neighborhood, they are reckless and imprudent in throwing away things made of plastic, paper, cardboard, and glass. They are mindless of the consequences and do not consider the harm and damage that they may cause to others and to themselves.
Another post Christmas blues are expenses that went beyond normal bounds, budget overruns, and credit limits that had been exceeded beyond the usual and standard boundaries. Debts become due and creditors start collecting. The debtors have to borrow in order to pay what were recklessly taken on credit. And so, blood pressures tend to go haywire with stress and high emotions on the rise. One would be tempted to say that Christmas is not only hazardous to one's health. It entails risks to your pockets. Well, actually, there is nothing wrong with Christmas. It is our wrong ways that spoil our holidays.
It is not clear if this has been proven. One statistician told me that there is an unusual incidence of marital and family troubles after Christmas. This could have been due to pressures on the financial management in the family which lead to arguments, marital conflicts and even separations and spouse abuse, physical, emotional and financial. All these we do not know how to experience and celebrate Christmas properly. Our stress was too much on materialism and consumerism. We forgot the true message of the Emmanuel in coming down to bring peace, joy, and hope to this crazy world.
Our secular world today has made us forget that Christmas is just a very simple but very meaningful gift-giving by the Father, who so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten son, so that all of us who believe could be saved. But we spoiled it all. We squandered Christmas by our lust, gluttony, and self-centeredness. We have overlooked the things that are really important, the one that really matters most. Shame, shame.
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