It’s (nearly) Christmas

10th December 2021

No mention of Plan B or Christmas parties. I think many of us are just worn out by what COVID keeps on bringing/doing. And by the shenanigans and behaviours at Westminster: be that this year or last.

As I write there is something to cheer me up. After two tired and quite terrible days, England have had a half decent third day in the Ashes. What sport can do, in the same way that art and literature do also, is offer us a real time distraction from all the things that we have in our lives.

Much of what we do will be difficult and draining. Much of what we read in the papers, listen to on the radio or watch on the TV news is difficult to comprehend, frustrating to observe and irritating to hear. However, sport, art and literature offer meaningful distractions to all that nonsense. Whoever you are, whatever you do, you will have something which suitably distracts you from some of that seemingly daily nonsense. Quite often, particularly with sport and with cricket more oft than not, we can have the lows, as much as the highs. But that’s the charm and the wonder of it all. And that’s why these pursuits persist.

I know that, as a more mature member of our community, I may not always be ‘down with the kids’ but the interests that I had as a teenager are not fundamentally different to the interests that teenagers of today pursue. And the interests that I have as an adult equally are not fundamentally different to the interests that teenagers have today. It’s just a matter of taste – when we are young we really don’t like the savoury, it’s all about the sweet, as we mature our taste shifts and the savoury becomes the favoured flavour. That’s okay.

When I was a lad… My parents, the older generation, didn’t like our music or couldn’t understand why sports people got paid so much or couldn’t accept why England found playing Australia that difficult, in the Ashes; the more things change the more they stay the same. Our children, our young people, look at us in exactly the same way as we observed our parents, our teachers, the older generation. The children of today are in no way different to the children of yesterday – despite what some of the commentators might say – and, I have no doubts, the children of tomorrow.

As we rattle towards our Christmas break we can reflect upon those things that used to excite us at this time of year, when we were younger, and be reassured that our children and young people are as equally excited today as we were yesterday.

Some ‘lighter’ Christmas thoughts…

‘Santa Claus has the right idea – visit people only once a year.’ Victor Borge
‘Christmas makes me happy no matter what time of year it comes around.’ Bryan White
‘That’s the true spirit of Christmas; people being helped by people other than me.’ Jerry Seinfeld

‘Let’s be naughty and save Santa the trip.’ Gary Allan

Just one more week to go until the Christmas break.