I’m expecting and planning for this to be a short post; I think I’ve said pretty much all I have to say already, though, like in Pink Floyd’s song, Time, I “thought I’d something more to say”.  But since I’m going to the office today‒we’re open half a day, not least because I have to get payroll done and sent off a day early so that people can get paid this week‒I figured I might as well write something.

I’ll refrain from any more stupid Boxing Day references.  That was just a prime example of my sense of humor, such as it is.  I’m sure it gets particularly tiresome if one is exposed to it on a regular basis.  Actually, I have that on good authority.

Instead, I’ll just wish a Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate that holiday, and a Happy Hanukkah to those of you who celebrate that one*.  And, of course, for anyone celebrating any other solstice-related holidays‒or just celebrating the solstice itself, and the now-increasing daylight in the northern hemisphere‒I wish you the best.  Next week we will have New Year’s, a traditional time for trying to initiate better habits and improve one’s life.  Mind you, the date of the “new year” is quite an arbitrary thing, unlike the solstice, which is a real phenomenon.

On the other hand, in the southern hemisphere, days have now begun to get shorter after the solstice, and Christmas and Hanukkah are summer holidays.  It’s an almost bizarre thought to those of us who grew up in the northern hemisphere, but that’s just the way it goes.  It certainly provides more evidence that, yes, Virginia, the world is round.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it.  I’m not celebrating anything, myself‒I don’t have anything to celebrate.  But I’ll send out some gifts and things to people who matter to me, because at least I can do that tiny bit of good in the world.  After that, who knows?  Work, days off, summer, winter, none of it really matters or makes any difference.  It’s all pretty much without interest, so whatever.

I will close with a paraphrase from Aragon (in the movies, not the book):  “I wish Joy to the world; I keep none for myself.”

*This is one of those rare years in which Hanukkah starts at sundown on Christmas night.  It won’t be that way next year, since the Hebrew calendar is lunar, and the months change relative to those of the Gregorian calendar from year to year, since the moon’s orbit time around the Earth is not an even fraction of the Earth’s orbit time around the sun.  There are various adjustments and even extra months sometimes needed to keep the calendar roughly consistent with the solar year while maintaining the tradition.  The rabbis tend to be quite clever about figuring such things out.