So Christmas has come around again and I must admit that I love this time of year. I love everything that glitters, I love the lights, I love the food, I love the excuse to get together with as many people as you can possibly squeeze in, and I love the slightly manic energy everywhere.
What I don’t love is that when I turn my radio on, they play “All I want for Christmas is..you” by Mariah Carey (click here to hear it – if you must).
I know it’s just a silly little Christmas song but it really annoys me because it perpetuates the (delusional) view, which unfortunately a lot of people hold, that I’ll be happy if only I get this spouse/job / house/kids /promotion /income/ holiday/group of friends/new set of breasts/car etc. In the song, the idea is that if I only get “you” I wont want anything else.
Yeah right.
Recently, a friend of mine finally got what she had wanted for a long, long time. For years she had believed that if only she got this, everything would fall into place and she would be happy and stop wanting. Of course this didn’t happen and she was plunged into a major existential crisis. If this couldn’t make her happy what could?
As Eckhart Tolle wisely tells us :”No ego can last for long without the need for more. Therefore wanting keeps the ego alive much more than having. The ego wants to want more than it wants to have. And so the shallow satisfaction of having is always replaced by more wanting.”
No doubt if Mariah Carey had finally gotten the “you” she so longed for, this year she would be wanting something else.
So here are a few ideas for follow-up songs (I think she should release a new one every year):
All I want for Christmas is……for the baby to stop crying
All I want for Christmas is……to lose the 5 kg I gained while with you
All I want for Christmas is……a bigger house
All I want for Christmas is……the new cute guy at work
All I want for Christmas is……a new car
All I want for Christmas is……to get married
All I want for Christmas is……a new job
All I want for Christmas is…….bigger breasts
All I want for Christmas is…….that you would pick your undies off the floor
All I want for Christmas is…….that our mother would never come around
Okay, enough ranting. You wouldn’t know it from the above, but I do love this time of year.
Have a safe one 🙂