The
Grinch is depicted as a hairy, pot-bellied, pear-shaped, snub-nosed creature
with a cat-like face and cynical personality. In full-color adaptations, he is
typically colored avocado
green. He has spent the past 53 years
living in seclusion on a cliff, overlooking the town of Whoville...
The Grinch has become an icon of anti-Christmas and the anti-winter holidays,
as a symbol of those who despise the holiday, much in the same nature as the
earlier character of Ebenezer Scrooge.
- Wikipedia
Yes,
there are Grinches, and yes, they are people with problems with the celebration
and/or all it stands for. There are
people incapable of feeling happiness.
Did you know that?
Incapable. As all the foofoorah
and happy happy of Christmas, they become more alienated, more unhappy, more
overwhelmed. Some are so finanacially strapped that it is difficult to be
happy. And, for some, there has been a
tragedy or heartbreak around Christmas and each year only brings that to the
forefront. Most do feel a loss of
mother, sister, aunt, friend, and this year has been difficult and the loss is
felt more.
"The
Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small."
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small."
-The
Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Dr. Seuss
All
of us have losses, some of us feel a new loss every day as we age. There is something about Christmas that might
make us feel loss, impending doom, or whatever anxiety can build. Some of us are very conscious we do not have
much more than ten more Christmases at best (average lifespan is 81 years of
age). Some feel guilty because they have alienated family in some way. Some feel self-destructive more so at
Christmas. Some are pessimists. Some of us are eternal Grinches about
everything and want to rain/snow on everyone's parade. What we forget is, we do not have to feel
happy inside, but we should not set out to make everyone else as miserable as
we are. We all have an Inner Grinch
somewhere, sometime.
Our
critical Evil Inner Witch can be brash and difficult around this season. Some come across as harsh and critical and
punishing, and unfriendly, and sit in their muddle of a puddle of
self-pity. We forget that our job here
is partially to help each other, to care for each other, and their self-pity
has them sink totally into the memememememe.
Youa re only the center of your own world, not everyone's and this is
hard to take if you are typically a self-centered person. We all know those grumpy old men and women in
the nursing homes that forget that there a many more patients in that very
room. They make life difficult for their
loved ones by sinking into the last conscious, pertinent; now, last thoughts
and they were miserable then and continue to be. Lord, keep me from this.
During
this time of year our Evil Inner Grinch can surely show up. We get all concerned over our own wants and
needs and it can make you feel miserable if not BE miserable. Now that all the hubbub of Christmas Day is
over, it is easy to slide into 'let down' of many kinds. Our Evil Inner Grinch
will feed the sense of loneliness once the company is gone, or that company
never came. It may have you feel
unloved, alone, isolated, unappreciated, etc.
Once
you EIG gets on a roll, if you ahve not learned how to halt it, it will go on
and on all the way back to the misery of your childhood, whether it was or
not. It will criticize everything you
think you did well and have you feeling like you, somehow, did not succeed in
having a Merry Christmas, whether you did or not.
We
all have this Evil Inner Grinch who goes by many names, or un-anted, at
all. It is our critical self-talk that
is pure negativity. Dr Seuss had a
friend who was a Grinch before the term was coined. He wrote about his 'sour friend' in The
Grinch Who Stole Christmas. We all
desire love, friendship, and the Christmas Spirit is joy in the heart. We need to maintain the positive feelings
that Christmas should bring, no matter what we have to do to keep it real and
keep it positive. Appreciate others. Appreciate others' joy. Don't be a Grinch who
wants to ruin joy for others.
©Carol
Desjarlais 12.26.19
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