Christmas Letters

I'm taking a poll:
Do you write and send an annual family or personal Christmas letter?
And/or
Do you like getting the same?

I dont' really care but geeze, these have to be just about the most dishonest form of communication that ever existed. I'm sure you've read ones like I have that proclaim "little Timmy's the captain of the football team" and "Suzy's first clarinet." "Daddy just got a promotion" or "mommy's apple pie won first prize at the fair."

People write about the good stuff - babies, achievements, awards, good grades, engagements, new homes, vacations, winning the lottery. It's as if we measure our success or who we are by how shiney our car is. Ugh!

Just once I'd like to get an honest letter. It might sound something like this:

2007 has been a challenging year for the Smith family. Jenny failed grade 9 and Tom got caught smoking pot (he says he didn't inhale.) To top off that nonsense Jim and I were on the brink of separating because we were at odds over whether I should take a promotion or not. On the positive side we did get a new computer but, it promptly got some mega virus that cost us mega bucks to get cleaned up. We had a vacation booked to Mexico in March but, that fell through when grandma died. Now we've got to move grandpa to a home and he's not too happy about that. Still we're hoping for a Merry Christmas and a better New Year.

Ok - maybe that's too depressing but, you get my point. Sometimes I read those letters and I wonder what these people were on. Maybe I could get some.

If all we are about is showing off how wonderful we and our kids and our lives are then it's no wonder we live in a "one up" society. Maybe, just maybe, if we could speak honestly about the not so wonderful parts of life we would find others share our experience. That might be the beginning of a better world.

NMW