Namaste and welcome back my friends, family, and fellow knowledge seekers to another exciting edition of Quiet Mouse Strikes Back!
So as you all know yesterday was the amalgamated tradition/holiday known as Christmas, rampant with gluttony, overspending, fatigue, and mainstream mindless zombie consumerism. Something tells me that Pepto and Tums are doing GREAT business this time of year... just a thought...
Basically my thoughts on the day after Christmas pretty much go like this: today seems to me almost as bad as "black Friday" where the malls and shopping stores are SUPER BUSY with after-holiday sale sale sale, but NOT for the exact reason the retailers would like it to be. Nope, most of the people are there doing one of two things... either returning items that were bought frivolously without much forethought of the recipient (so the person can exchange it for what they REALLY wanted) OR people are out spending their gift certificates and gift cards like it's burning an angry hole in his/her pocket. This leads me to the inevitable question of gifts and re-gifting... WHY oh WHY do we end up the holiday with so much junk? Why do we insist on having relatives who we barely see and who hardly know us buy us crap we don't want or don't really need? Now don't get me wrong, I, like most people DO enjoy receiving gifts, although I DO prefer something more practical than something that is wasteful or unnecessary. For example, I LOVE to cook, so my girlfriend bought me a VERY nice stainless steel Calphalon cooking pan... very shibby!! I will use this very often and am planning on making her some great meals with this. The point that I'm trying to make is that it was a well thought out gift from someone who actually took the time to THINK about and CONSCIOUSLY decide what to get me rather than shopping on blind impulse or "price range", as if the holiday season were a contest to see who can get the BIGGEST, MOST-EXPENSIVE gifts... no, no, no, silly... The Christmas season is supposed to be about FAMILY, LOVE, and TOGETHERNESS... right??
In addition to what I've already written above, today is Monday :( and people end up having to go back to work possibly hung over from holiday spiked eggnog and the ever present alcohol gift exchanging, PLUS there is the tryptophan hang over from eating too much turkey and lapsing into the holiday dinner COMA.
On another less happy note... my LEAST favorite part of the holiday is the Christmas tree. I truly DO understand the significance and importance of the holiday tradition surrounding this, I DO... however, WHY DO PEOPLE HAVE TO KILL A LIVING TREE??? EVERY SINGLE YEAR??? Now as the holiday season winds down to a close people are busy throwing out these trees like they are trash when we COULD have left them in the ground to battle against the carbon emissions that everyone seems so worried about!! Now our trees go to fill up the garbage can or create more work for the waste disposal people, ending up in a landfill rather than growing mature. I personally would love to see MORE trees left ALIVE and INTACT to add to the beauty of the natural landscape than to wind up on the curb to die.
"Quiet Mouse you sound like one of those tree-hugging hippies right now!" The peanut gallery comments...
Maybe that's because I AM! Why is that comment always said like it's a bad thing? Is the option really as simple as being a mindless baffoon that doesn't care about plants and animals versus someone who actually DOES care about the environment? Well, for all the Christians and other religious fanatics out there... WHY DON'T YOU CARE? There is only 1 Earth. We ALL have to live here TOGETHER. We ALL have to SHARE the FINITE resources... and ME personally, I would rather live in a forest than a cesspool filled toxic waste dump full of timber cutting, strip mining, and pollution that the Republicans have planned for our natural wilderness areas.
So... I'm sure I will go off on that again in another blog. I will lay that to rest for the moment. To end this blog I want to say that it IS important to reduce, re-use, and recycle, especially in this holiday season of waste. Recycle that holiday paper instead of throwing it in the trash. Compost your tree needles and use the wood for a fire to keep your family warm during the winter if NOTHING else. And remember... it does NOT take a holiday for you and I to be good to one another. We should be good to one another EVERY DAY, NOT just holidays. If you need a new year's resolution, perhaps it should be THAT! To be good to other human beings EVERY DAY; pay it forward and good karma will come back to you.
This has been the Quiet Mouse.
Peace. Love. Respect. Family. KARMA.
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