Merry Christmas, cyberwebhead people. It is now Christmas Eve. I’ve taken off work, and am watching The Sound of Music. I’m thinking of the scene near the end when Captain Von Trapp is singing “Eidelweis.”  (Yeah, I know….not spelled right….I’m not Austrian!) And he stands there, his voice breaking, because he knows that his nation, the nation that he loves and has fought for, has fallen beneath the yoke of a great evil.

I fear that my nation has fallen beneath the yoke of a great evil. I feel as the Baron Von Trapp did. That we “must help it!!!”

But even though evil may prevail for a while, goodness will sprout anyway, like an eidelweis flower blossoms from the lifeless snow.

Tomorrow we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And that is true music to my ears…..and to my heart.

May God bless us…..you know the rest…..

I think about how nobody is reading this, and I think several things. One is that, while I want to remain anonymous, it is impossible for people to relate to a faceless entity. That is one reason why so many are against big government and big business. We don’t like that which is faceless.

Side note: Lewis would ask, how can we look upon the gods, until we have faces…..?

So let me reintroduce myself under a pseudonym. Of all figures of history, the one I most identify with, (though I’m not half the man he was) is William Wallace. No…..that won’t do. I look nothing like Mel Gibson. More like Mel Blanc. Robert Bruce….? No…..nothing noble or kingly about me…..

Duncan, perhaps…..a good Scottish name. I’m part Scott….maybe that is why I am a hopeless romantic.

You see….I had a love affair with America…..I thought to myself, “How beautiful the sunrise as it radiates from the sullen, somber clouds. How lovely, the thought that every man might eat his own food at the foot of his own tree, loving his wife and family in the door of his own house.”

I know….a silly dream. A teenagers dream. So why, now that I am forty, why do I still have these silly notions of personal liberty and dignity? How have I held on to the tattered remnants of my patriotism through all these long and dusty years.

Michael W. Smith answers that question best in his song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj9Fa6IFM8Q

Any how, this is “Duncan” (please, no derogatory Highlander comments), signing off…..

I cannot say stop the insanity. There have been exactly six views of this blog, and I can’t blame anyone for not coming back. I’m alone, waiting for my wife and kid to come back home, and wondering about all the bittersweet thoughts that float around in my confounded cerebrum. (Or is it cerebellum).

I with that this could have been some great clarion call to my fellow Christian Americans.  I wish I could cry out to all of you. I wish I could get everyone to awaken to the darkness that threatens to destroy us all. But nobody is listening.

How many sites can be found for pornography this X-mas? How many lost souls would rather look at lewd pictures of a Kardashian sister rather than celebrate the birth of the Greatest Man that ever lived? How many watch reality tv while Rome burns?

I wish I was a Glen Beck or a Michail Savage. I wish I could get you to pay attention. I wish I could enspire you to live better lives, be better husbands and wives, give more love and less….

….but what is it the average person gives? Anything at all? How many of us would be complete wastes of space if we weren’t such efficient producers of Co2 from our lungs? At least plants benefit from our transpirations. How many people recieve no benefit from our breathe, from our words, actions, thoughts, and deeds?

How many of us accomplish little more than flipping from one channel to the next?

We have let them lull us to sleep. Japan awakened the sleeping giant, and we have allowed the progressive government medial complex to lull us back into a deeper, darker drouse full of nightmares and delusions dreary with dreams of empty promises, broken relics of worker’s paridii that never came to be.

And, this side of Heaven, never will. I so remember, when I was young, thinking I could change the world with my talents and creativity.

Nobody heard then. And nobody is listening now.

Here is a link to a very vaguely related story: http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/congressmen-cant-say-merry-christmas-mail/261466

With apologies to my lovely wife, who is trying to keep me positive…..

I’m off of work, watching my kid. I’m trying to convey a few truths, but I think others have done it better.

This person, for example: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/hear-the-edited-version-of-adam-carollas-epic-rant/

And here is something you might like to know: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2011/12/13/nativity-scene-co-star-in-venezuela-hugo-chavez/

I’m not good at photo shop, but I took a few minutes to create this “masterpiece.”

Anyway, maybe it conveys a little bit of my horror at people who are setting themselves up to be equal with God. Sorry, I know one or two of the six people who’ve bothered to read my rants are Christian, but I thought that the Adam Carallos rant was highly apropos of our times.

I find myself tempted to be envious of all those bloggers out there who are better than me. But the truth is, I just need to get my lazy tail in gear and become better at it.

And, you ask, how does this run with the theme or your blog, silly retail twit? Well, the twit answers:

The spirit of Christmas is giving. Is building others up. Is finding ways to become a winner, and help others become winners.

The spirit of Xmas is taking. Is tearing others down if they don’t give or receive the right material gifts. Is whining about being a loser, or looking down on others and seeing them as losers.

Anyway, feel free to leave a comment. And anyone with any tips on photoshop (do they even call it that, anymore….I’m about ten years out of the game….) I do welcome useful (and largely positive) criticism.

I hope this doesn’t give away too much about who I am. But quite often I have to drive to the home office (sort of) and get my little ordering machine to play well with the other dark electronic gods of profit. I was there, tonight, quite late, and a little less than happy to be there instead of at home watching Battlestar Galactica. Anywho, on the wall was a paper advertising help for the depressed during the holiday seasons.

Now, I hope this won’t turn off too many people, but I have more than a little experience with depression.

So that is my little pointless rant for the night. Do the holidays depress you? Comment on it. Let us know. You might be surprised how many others feel the emptiness too.

That is why I agree with CS Lewis. I posit two holidays. Christmas: a celebration of the birth of Christ by Christians.

And Xmas. A dark corruption of that celebration. A day that has been nearly bereft of its original meaning by the common greed of our culture. The megacorps feed you the line…..buy our stuff for Xmas, and people will love you and you will find happiness.

We buy the stuff, end up further in debt, and still find no love in the hearts surrounding us.

The emptiness of X-mas rolls on like a juggernaut.

What of the fullness of Christmas? Those of us who claim Christ as our Savior……how do we combat this emptiness. Sometimes it is tempting to just go to a monastery, and forget about the problems of others. But that surely is not the answer. Surely we are to be in this world, though not of it. Surely there is something in the true Spirit of Christmas that can fill the void caused by X-mas…..?

What do you think?

So now I grouse inwardly, thinking how I was going to get so much accomplished over the vacation. I was going to make this blog great, I was going to make progress on my book. Instead, I largely slept and contributed to that great Exmas rush that CS Lewis wrote about. Right now, my wife is trying to get the house ready for a visit from my family, and I type, disgruntled, wondering why I am so lazy. Wishing that I could put the blame on the world, or on the difficulty of retail, or some other thing.

But there are positives, as well. I’ve grown a little closer to my wife and son over the vacation. We may merely be further entrenching ourselves in our antisocial enclave, but that’s ok. To paraphrase Dr. Phil, we’re trying to make ourselves happy, rather than right!

The title pretty much tells the story. I’m off……

But not to see the wizard. My wife and my mother in law…..

They’re out shopping for Christmas. Remember….no x for Christmas!!!! I really don’t think I’m one of the people who “gets” Christmas.

Don’t worry. My wife told me not to be too bitter, so I will try my best to be somewhat positive and upbeat. But, like so many of you out there, it can be a challenge to stay positive during holidays.

Especially this holiday. I think a quote from a book will explain it best. This is from Surprised by C S Lewis, George MacDonald, and Dante.

“In 1954 Lewis published a very different kind of fantasy about Christmas, “Xmas and Christmas.” It is an essay about the strange island called Niatirb…and the winter festival called Exmas….

One of the customs that fills the marketplace with crowds during the foggiest and rainiest season fo the year is the great labor and weariness of sending cards and gifts. Every citizen has to guess the value of the gift that every friend will send him so that he may send one of equal value whether he can afford it or not. Everyone becomes so pale and weary that it looks as if calamity has struck. these days are called the Exmas Rush. Exhausted with the Rush, most citizens lie in bed until noon on the day of the festival. Later that day they eat far too much and get intoxicated. On the day after Exmas they are very grave because they feel unwell and begin to calculate how much they have spent on Exmas and the Rush.”

Well, I would love to follow up with a rant, but I promised to stay positive, so I will let this quote speak for itself. And I will with the three people who may read this a very merry Christ‘s Mass…..

Sorry I’ve left no post for a long time. I work in retail, and the holidays are very difficult times.

There’s a lot I would love to say about that, but the wife believes that its too bitter and should be left unsaid. Perhaps she is right. So I’d like to ask you guys (all two of you):

Does anyone have any thoughts about retail and holidays? Is Black Friday good for the economy, or simply corporate greed going to extremes? What do you two think?