The aged and Christmas

Christmas has been and gone once again as we tidy away the tinsel and wrapping paper for another year. For most it has been good to be forced out of our lethargy and join in the party even if it meant clocking up many miles to see family and friends. Now with only Old Years Night / New Years Day ahead the reality of the payment for our extravagance, sets in and the wild exuberance of the Christmas Present binge sits like a heavy meal on our credit account. So be it, the Chancellor would have us believe that we are doing our bit to stimulate the economy. Pity he doesn't feel the need to chase Goldman Sacks, Google and Amazon to inculcate into them to have the same national zeal to contribute their taxes. 

When you get older many of your friends lie in hospital or sadly pass away around this time, its as if they wait until another signpost, memories of better times, arrives and passes and the thought of another year ahead in ill health is too much. There have been many old people this holiday forgotten in their homes, pottering around eating meagre meals in a poorly heated, dimly lit rooms with only the TV to keep them company. How incongruous the programs are to his or her situation with their forced joviality and excessive focus on family and friends. 

Religion used to be a support, a prop for people who were tied through sickness and old age to their home. The service, the carols, the sight of the congregation, (if you had TV), people like you, a little younger but recognisable as part of the race of human-beings you had grown up amongst, not the souped up celebrity hosting a show which was the brain child of someone more adept at running Jackanory.