Up until about 4 days ago, I was planning on having Thanksgiving at my sister's house up north. Then I got the news that my nephew had a particularly contagious illness, so Thanksgiving was cancelled on pretty short notice(Hoping you feel better soon little bud). This left me with the option I was pretty comfortable with and the option I ended up doing, which was to not go to a Thanksgiving at all. However, an offer was floated to travel with my other sister and attend Thanksgiving with her family and in laws. I hope that declining wasn't seen as rude, and I hope in no way that I came across as having a distaste for anyone's family*, but the bottom line for me is that I am profoundly uncomfortable going to family events that are A. Not my immediate family, and therefore full of people I don't know, and B. Going to non-family events as a last minute change that the host didn't explicitly invite me to. Sometimes I compare my discomfort to the vampiric myth of being unable to enter without invitation, except that the lack of invitation just results in me being awkward and uncomfortable rather than supernaturally unable to enter.
But I think the real reason is that I'm not a a particularly romantic** person, so I go to events because the people I know will be there and I enjoy their company, but not with any real reverence to the event itself, and that there is an expectation of me to be there. Its utilitarian*** in a very roundabout way. Holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas are all about familiar interactions for me, so if that criteria is unmet or low, I generally prefer to abstain entirely even if it might be considered socially faux pas to do so.
And heading into a broader context, I have to admit that I also don't enjoy the holidays all that much because I am definitely not in the core demographic: The Family Unit. I obviously have family, both by blood and by familiarity but I don't have my own family, which some deep cultural and possibly genetic roots scream at me that I need. I'm also not in the highly popular secondary demographic: The Couple. And as much as I like being a "Strong independent man who don't need nobody"****, the winter season is not a particularly pleasant time for my ilk.***** I know no one asked for explanations for m strange holiday views bet here you all go. Happy Eat Your Feelings And Try To Not Hit Your Racist Uncle Day!
-Will
Editors Notes:
*No one thinks this Will, stop apologizing and get to the next place for a funny footnote.
** He means this in the dichotomy of Classical(Primarily valuing logic and structure) vs Romantic (Primarily valuing feeling and aesthetic) personalities. The only time he goes to family gatherings with romantic intentions is when he goes to my family events to flirt with my cousin Greta. Which is still pretty gross.
***Didn't you say in a previous post that the utilitarian philosophy was highly valued by the Nazis?
****You co-opted and misquoted a line originally used for female empowerment. You're climbing the douche scale fast.
***** Come off it. Everybody knows that on some weird level you enjoy being melancholy during the holidays. You just want a nice lady to be melancholy with during the holidays, but then you wouldn't be sad, so it would cancel out. For anyone else that would be approaching happy, but for you, it would probably enter some alternate version of melancholy that is even worse.
No comments:
Post a Comment