Arm-Wrestling the Grinch
I’ve been struggling this holiday season and I know I’m not the only one. We’ve turned a collective Grinch green thanks to the pandemic, at times just wanting to chuck it all in the trash and be done with it. Skip forward to 2021 as if ripping off the Band-Aid of a bad year.
Put up a tree early. Play holiday music. Write a bigger check to my favorite nonprofits. I’ve tried my darndest to sweep away the blues by pulling out the big guns of baking and candy-making to spread cheer. Just when I feel like I’m making headway, the Grinch gains ground with delayed packages to and from loved ones, the death of a beloved customer and the inability to share her daughter and husband’s grief with a simple touch. Social distancing scores the green meanie a few more points. And forget the mistletoe attached to my market tent.
We can blame it on COVID, but the truth is we’ve all had those times when we struggled with the holiday season for one reason or another. Don’t believe me? Just listen to Christmas music for any length of time and you’ll hear plenty of heartbreak. Elvis had a Blue Christmas, Bing Crosby didn’t make it home and Prince had another lonely Christmas. Willie Nelson’s Pretty Paper and John Denver’s Please Daddy Don’t Get Drunk this Christmas reveal the harsh realities for many in our less-than-perfect world.
December is synonymous with feasting in cultures throughout history and geography. As Americans, we kick off with Thanksgiving in late November and the rest of the world follows into March through the Lunar New Year and Persian New Year in March. Humans are hardwired to gather and celebrate their shared connections. Isn’t that what they were doing in Whoville when the Grinch changed party affiliations? Why, they even let him carve the roast beast.
This year; forget it. No one will be carving anything. Since my first year at market I’ve had the same customers order a huge roast for their big family get-togethers. This year they ordered a pair of chops for themselves, tearing up as I handed over their purchase. “Look on the bright side, it’s still a good meal,” I said trying to smile with my eyes that ultimately gave in and commiserated.
We are the Whos of Whoville this year and it feels as if someone has stolen all of the presents out from under our trees of tradition. Each of us is struggling in some way grasp at resiliency. If someone has to stand up and say it, by golly, I will: it’s ok this year to scrap your usual plans, sleep in, stay in your pajamas, cook something boring or not at all. If you really want to wallow in misery, eat the stale French pastry that’s been setting like cement since Sunday.
Or…
You can invite the Grinch to your table and embrace, if only for this year, the grace of accepting things as not as we wish them to be. Take heart in the fact that people have been having crappy holidays long before the pandemic arrived. We’ve been warned not to travel, locked down from gathering, and discouraged from gift shopping in person, but the one thing we still can choose is which Grinch we want to win this Christmas.