The Holiday of Misgivings
The Works of Mark Edgemon from All-Creatures.org

Mark Edgemon has been writing for 30 years. He writes and publishes short stories, articles, poetry and scripts, as well as, produces audio comedy productions for over 700 radio stations nationwide.

Contact Mark through his website, Creator and the Catalyst.

The Holiday of Misgivings

More people are sad during the holidays than at any other time of year, a time that should be of great rejoicing, hope and reaching out to others. For most people, they feel lonelier during the Christmas season, than at any other time of year.

Carol felt this way. She hated Christmas and loathed the last six weeks of the year. With a husband and two children it was up to her to cook the Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for her family and a hell of a lot of in-laws…the choice of words were appropriately chosen.

She had to clean the mess up afterwards, while missing out on the festivities. Then she had to be the butler and the maid to fetch…fetch…fetch for everyone who would politely snap their fingers by saying Carol dear, would you get me this or oops, I spilled the tea or coffee would you get me a napkin. Well of course, as well intentioned as that was to let the stain set into her carpet or upholstery, she would rather get down on her hands and knees and clean it immediately in hopes of removing it.

At Christmas, everyone called her Christmas Carol in a joking way, but no one offered any help picking out presents or wrapping them and placing them under the tree.

And of course, there was the New Year’s Day Football game and the dozen of so ex-jocks, who would come over to drink, eat, yell at the television and make a mess, leaving it for Carol to clean up when they were gone.

And no one ever thanked her or appreciated her.

One year, her husband came home and found a note saying, I’m getting into the true meaning of the season this year; I’m cooking the Thanksgiving meal for the homeless at the shelter downtown. When she got home, her husband asked her what made her do a crazy thing like that and how much did they pay her?

She replied, “More than I’ve ever gotten for a holiday meal before…100 people telling me thank you.

Copyright © 2008 Mark Edgemon

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