With Christmas decorations adorning shop windows and the soothing tones
of Boney M filtering through shopping malls countrywide, the festive season is
well and truly upon us. For students, who have just sat for their year-end
examinations, and employees, who are pushing through their list of year-end
to-dos, the transition from November to December is signalled by a collective
sigh of relief. ‘We made it!’
However, moving from the November’s frenetic push towards the end of the
working year, what we encounter in December is far from the ‘Peace on earth and
goodwill to all men’ mantra that so many proclaim. Often, December leaves us a
little shell-shocked as we navigate the precarious terrain of buying Christmas
presents, setting off for the coast, or travelling overseas on holiday. The
November sigh of relief is quickly replaced by hyperventilation at the very
thought.
Columnist Dave Barry observed, ‘Once again, we come to the Holiday
Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by
going to the mall of his choice.’ While this comment may be humorous, there is
a sense of truth about it. November rolls over into December, and we are
bombarded by a consumer-driven ethos that puts a price tag on celebrating the
birth of a Saviour – it calls to us, saying, ‘spend money on things rather than
spend time with people’.
For me, November is a time to finish things, leave no stone unturned so
that the December break is well and truly an opportunity to do as little as
possible and rest – and certainly the way that the world works pushes us to the
brink of exhaustion by driving our ambitions towards having more, which in turn
requires us to spend more. But where does that leave us in this equation of
getting more stuff? Are we happier? Are we healthier? Do we make time for
people who need our time? Do we make time for ourselves?
And so I put the questions to you. How do you spend your time in
November and December – at the closing of the year?
