As we grow older, the special holidays we used to anticipate with joy and excitement gradually lose their appeal. People nowadays could care less for noche buena or for presents. Everything is nothing more but a cultural formality if not a mere conflagration of hedonistic pursuits born from excessive commercialization.
There are tons of reasons behind this growing apathy:
- Work demands. Go ask a call center agent, a reporter or a back office outsourcing employee. These people know no holidays. They hardly even know night from day.
- Overratedness. Just like eating at Jollibee or McDonald's almost everyday of your life for the lack of a better functioning food handler nearby, having the same food, people and method of celebrating is sure to make your Christmas downright monotonous. Talk about broken record.
- Bereavement. Call it macabre and pessimistic but truth's truth, some people unexpectedly lose their loved ones in what would have been an occasion for merry reunions. Such is life and death, as we all know, is a thief worse than Ali Baba and his forty thieves.
- Calamities. In relation to bereavement, the occurrence of calamities such as typhoons, flash floods, mudslides, earthquakes and tsunamis is a surefire way to make you lose your appetite for merry-making. Any living being still in possession of a conscience will always think twice before enjoying this Christmas with reckless abandon. Recently, Northern Mindanao suffered a beat down from the tropical storm Sendong, which left behind a long trail of dead bodies. I certainly cannot be happy while my kababayans are in misery. I may not know the victims personally, but I know the pain their loved ones must be feeling.
- Bad news. Oh, well. Need I say more? The moment you flip open a newspaper or even just peek around a newspaper stand, you're suddenly overwhelmed with regret: "11-year-old Killed by an Unknown Foreigner and Filipina wife," "Fashion Designer Shot Dead by Lover," "400 Dead at Cagayan de Oro Flood," "Kim Jong-Il Dead," and all that jazz. Everyone's dying! If not by murder, then through calamities and illnesses. Not to mention side stories on robbery, rape, political cat fights corruption, awful policies (i.e. flyovers) and economic downturns (i.e. EU going down, America going down). Wherever you turn, nothing but bad news awaits you. That's why I hardly bother to read at all. In view of these, do you still feel like celebrating?
Ironically, despite all the reasons I enumerated above, I did harbor some hope for a little bit of merriment. I got a little too carried away with my vain attempts to think positively and was met with negative responses instead. Allow me to highlight such ironies again:
- I was eager to celebrate noche buena with my family but my parents went straight to sleep; my brother was immersed in his own lovey-dovey world.
- Lots of food were brought but no one's up or in the mood to eat them.
- I forwarded an SMS to almost everyone in my contacts list, greeting them a "Merry Christmas" and wishing them "happiness" wherever they may go; spasms of sorrow and a torrent of tears shook me just as midnight struck. It's as if by wishing everyone to be happiness, I felt even more alone.
Do I still hope?
I do. Remember that Pandora's Box has one little candle left. Remember the last two lines of Desiderata. Remember that nothing lasts forever. So shall this emptiness too.
