Hellavision

I’ve decided not to care if people are bothered when I say “Merry Christmas”.  It’s not that I don’t respect their beliefs, it’s that I don’t respect their beliefs enough to change.

When I was a kid, it was Christmas.  We weren’t religious back then and we still said it.  Later in life our family joined the Catholic Church and we said it.  Now that I’m no longer a member of any theistic (mono or poly) faith systems, I say Christmas.

You know why?  Because it’s fuckin’ Christmas.  It has no more to do with the birth of Christ for me than Thanksgiving, or New Years or Hallowe’en for that matter.

It’s a word.  Like a Band-aid is an adhesive medical strip and Xerox is a photocopier.  Do you really reach for a cotton swab when you clean out your wax-clogged self-righteous earholes?

There’s a lot of concern over protocol, which invariably (as all matters of protocol do) leads to questions of right and wrong and when and what is which to whom.

I’ve never found the line to be that blurry or the matter to be very gray.  If it’s business related or I’m speaking to a group of people, I say something non-denominational such as “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy Holidays”.  If it’s me on the street talking to another person on the street, I say whatever I want.

Because my intent is for the person I’m speaking to to have a wonderful holiday, whatever that holiday is.  Shame on you if you correct someone who wishes you well during this time of year – because you’re basically implying that the well wisher wishes you ill.  Think on that for a moment, and if you still can’t get past your own beliefs I hope Black Peter whacks you with his switch until you learn some manners, or that Santa brings you some this Saturday.

Oh yeah, and Merry Christmas to all.

Paul Watzlawick is an Austrian-American psychologist and philosopher.  I learned about Paul while reading a book by Erik Spiekermann called “Stop Stealing Sheep and Learn how Type Works” where I came across a single line from his 1967 book, Pragmatics of human communication.

The first of Watzlawick’s five axioms of communication (and the only one I can remember on demand, my memory really stinks) reads:

“One cannot not communicate” Because every behaviour is a kind of communication, people who are aware of each other are constantly communicating. Any perceivable behaviour, including the absence of action, has the potential to be interpreted by other people as having some meaning.

This book was published in 1967, so I imagine he had that thought long before then (and probably after).   I imagine today, were he still alive (he passed in 2007 – but internet years are like dog years so it’s fair to say that at least 20 years have passed since his departure from the mortal coil), he would be flabbergasted by the size of our personal networks and the rate at which they’re growing.  I know I am, and I’ve been here the whole time.