Veterans Day always gives me the blues too, as I ponder the sacrifices made by our fighters, and wonder about all the things my grandfather and his Army buddies experienced and will never be able to talk about.
Oh, wait, you are depressed because you can’t think of what you want for Christmas? :rolleyes:
Oh, and one more for good measure:
:rolleyes:
I know the Holidays are a difficult time for lots of people. Last year I was selling plasma so I could buy my family’s Christmas presents because I was too ashamed to tell them I was broke. But it’s early November, MSK. Why buy trouble, worry, anxiety, and depression now? Why are you so sure the holidays are going to lack something and be sad? That sounds like self-fulfilling prophecy to me. Why not focus on what you can DO instead of what you lack? Why not plan what you are going to get or make your family for Christmas instead of what YOU want? You are Christian, right? Why not make your holiday about religion, joy, acts of love and faith and charity instead of presents and longing for old relationships?
Magical Silver Key, I know I don’t often have nice things to say to you on the boards. When I first joined, I spent many a lunch our answering your requests for advice and sympathy honestly, and then getting bored and annoyed as your whining, self-pitying threads multiplied and you never seemed to take anyone’s advice. You have an excuse for everything - people give you helpful suggesions, but there is always some reason that you can’t follow them. Knowing only your posts, you come across here as the most self-involved, self-pitying, self-conscious person on the planet. Children playing in a public park on a summer day ruin YOUR suntanning time. A complicated weather almanac brings you to your knees. You rarely participate in the threads of others - never offering comfort, advice, humor, GQ answers, debate - All of your posts are “me, me, me, me and my problems.”
----------FLAME OVER------------
So, this holiday season, I’d like to offer you the Magical Silver Key Challenge. It is twofold:
1) Find some charity or public-spirited activity that you can participate in. Many involve very little time or money. Join Chemo Angels - write weekly cards to people going through chemotherapy and brighten their lives. Write letters for Amnesty International. Read aloud to senior citizens at your local old folks home - many of them seem as lonely as you seem in your posts and could use the company. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity or a soup kitchen. Just do one act of service that is not about yourself between now and the end of the year. The caveat is that you cannot just write a check - it has to be an activity, even if it’s only one day of volunteering.
2) I also challenge you to stop complaining for 1 month. I did this about 2 years ago when I was in an unhappy phase and realized that every other word out of my mouth was a complaint about something - complaining for the sake of complaining. So I gave up complaining for Lent, and it seriously changed my life. In that 40 days, I got a new job, ended an unhealthy relationship, lost weight, slept better, and enjoyed life 100% more. Every now and then I lapse back into that mindset and have to check myself, but that month of not complaining was the best thing I ever did.
If you will do this, MSK, I will also take this challenge myself. Between now and 12/31 I’ll do one public service-oriented thing and I’ll stop complaining. I won’t post any pit threads about the world crapping upon me, I won’t bitch about work, money, the cold Chicago winter, the noisy people upstairs, MPSIMS flirt threads, terrorism, or anything.
I hope you (and any other Dopers with the holiday blues) take me up on this. and that you have a Merry Christmas.