THAT'S LIFE: It’s the season of all excesses

As the countdown to Christmas begins, plans have been made about where to ‘eat’ the holiday and with whom. The most organised in our midst will have created budgets factoring in the anticipated additional spending. Common sense will take leave for a few mad days as PSVs make mad dashes across the country to cash in on the increasing number of travellers. There will likely be more incidences of drunk driving as well as over-speeding. Sadly, the headlines will tell it all. A cautionary tale from Christmases past that we sadly did not learn from.

To top it all, January with its limited cashflows will come upon us like a thief in the night. Only then will we peer into empty wallets and think perhaps, that we should have held back. A little.

A fitness instructor who has seen it all, shook his head in a recent conversation and said, “The Christmas break is just a few days but it causes so much havoc!” He was largely referring to how many who have spent the last one year working out and watching their diets will throw everything away in just seven days.

They will then need all of January plus a few detox regimes to get their rhythm back. Until that moment, I too had been day dreaming about my own little planned excesses. He was right of course. Seven days of pleasure could very well lead to a month or year of pain. At the risk of popping all those holiday balloons that you are intending to fill, does it have to be like this?

Can you still save Christmas and yourself, if not from the Grinch, then from unwarranted excesses? Can the season still be memorable and joyful if we just ease back on 20 per cent of what we wanted to spend and save it for the January dry spell? Sure, we may have to pass on the turkey or high price tag drinks but chances are, we will feel so clever when everyone else is moaning about how January has 60 days.  

The trick though, is to redefine our idea of what fun is. For many of us, who only received new clothes at Christmas time, the idea could be reinforced within our psyche that spending money, or buying new things is fun.

There is also the idea that eating all you can and drinking yourself into a holiday blur is fun. We may also believe that spending time with people we don’t like but are obligated to because we share blood, is fun.

Take it from a recovering spendthrift, being broke is as much fun as sleeping on the sidewalk on a rainy night. However, as a disclaimer, if you are one of the lucky few who has more money than they know what to do with, feel free to part with as many of your pennies as you can.

Most of us though, will borrow from the bank, a friend or employer to spend on Christmas. And that’s never a fun or wise thing to do. What we need to do then, is pull back a little. Give gifts of time instead of cash or toys. We can even make, cook or sew our gifts.

Secondly, we need to find the Roman who convinced us that gluttony and drunkenness are fun and toss him overboard. I recently overheard two youths talking about their wild weekend follies. “We had so much fun on Sato. I was so wasted, man!” I had to do a double take that wasted and fun went hand in hand.

Like I said. Find the Roman. While the good book does allow that a little wine may be good for the stomach, it cautions strongly against drunkenness. Unfortunately, too many young people who binge drink believe that they can only attain nirvana while throwing up into a toilet.

How about we change our concept of drunk on alcohol and choose instead to be drunk on life this Christmas? Get high on walking on the beach, swimming in rivers or spending time with loved ones.

Get high on that tingling sensation of being alive, and acutely aware of how wonderful and brief this moment is. As we plan the holidays, let’s hang on a little tightly to our pennies and our sensibilities. With any luck, we can restore the season of all excess back to the season of amazing grace.

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