Reality check on the holiday season<\/p>\n
By A. Suhandojo<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): \"Holiday Season? Frankly my dear I don't give a
\ndamn.\" Part of that sentence is from a Scarlett O'Hara line when
\nshe wanted to get back together with her on-and-off husband Rhett
\nButler in the famous motion picture Gone with the Wind. But that
\nwas not the reason why I used the line as the lead in this
\narticle. The reason was because I felt that it could whole
\nheartedly represent my personal sentiments toward the holiday
\nseason.<\/p>\n
Being a single \"brown\" female, without a boyfriend, and as
\nsomeone who is of modest means, the meaning of the expression
\n\"holiday season\" in my personal dictionary refers to (1) Sleeping
\nat home all day, just like the rest of the year, or (2) Sleeping
\nall day at \"only-God-knows-where-my-family-would-go-this-holiday-
\nseason\". Of course those two options could not be considered as
\nthe most interesting way to spend the holiday.<\/p>\n
Sometimes I wonder whether the holiday season still holds its
\ntrue meaning of being the most magical time of the year, the time
\nto give and to forgive. Today, the event seems merely to be used
\nby the department stores and card publishers to make us -- the
\ntarget market -- increase our expenditures on cards, clothes,
\nperfumes and even trees, by 10 times more than our paychecks. In
\norder to do that, they are willing to create 25-meter high
\nChristmas trees with a TV as an ornament. I really did not get
\nit: does that mean that TV sets look good on a tree, or should we
\nbuy another TV?<\/p>\n
Besides being a perfect marketing strategy, the holiday season
\nis still supposed to be fun. Full of days off, a \"not so
\ngenerous\" year-end bonus, mistletoe, and most of all a romantic
\ncandle light New Year's Eve dinner as we approach the new
\nmillennium. The candle light is a precaution measure to face the
\npossibility of having electricity failures at 00:00 on Jan. 1,
\n2000. We can never be sure about what will happen on that date. I
\nreally admire all the brave mothers to be, who plan on giving
\nbirth at that \"questionable\" moment, while some people say they
\nwill not even dare to use their ATM cards!<\/p>\n
Approaching the age of 26 made me decide not to spend one
\nsecond more of my holiday season in the old and boring way. This
\nled to my struggle to try and spend my holiday in a \"Y2K
\ncompliance -- they said\" way, which of course, is not very
\nexpensive. This included a long list of options such as:<\/p>\n
* Going to the dentist: \"Doc, this is an emergency, I don't
\nhave a life, help!\"<\/p>\n
* Having a palm reader read my hands.<\/p>\n
* Watching Dawson's Creek rerun on TPI. My favorite episode
\nwas the one where Pacey Witter impersonated Mel Gibson in Brave
\nHeart, and YES I am a nerd.<\/p>\n
* Writing this article.<\/p>\n
Not much of a list I suppose, because by the end of the
\nevening I had crossed out all of the options. But you should try
\nthat \"palm-reading\" thing. The old man that read my hands told me
\nthat I would get married next year. He knew it from the line
\nbetween my thumb and my index finger, I never knew that those
\nlines could be so powerful! If you are interested in his service,
\nfeel free to contact me.<\/p>\n
Being a cyber-gal made me try to seek advice on this holiday
\nseason \"mumbo jumbo\" from Jeeves on ASK.com. ASK.com is a search
\nengine that has the motto: \"Answering millions of your
\nquestions.\" I nominated ASK.COM as the most \"human\" search engine
\non the net, because it allowed me to use questions instead of a
\nclue word to find vital information from the Internet.<\/p>\n
People's questions ranged from where to buy the fancy \"Pokemon
\ncards\" to whether their loved one was their perfect match. You
\ncould ask anything! For example: If you would like to know where
\nyou can buy this season's hottest trend \"tube\" top, the site will
\nlink you to more than 243 online shops, from Bloomingdale's to
\n\"the-what?-Say-it-again\" store. Estimated time to find the
\nperfect tube top is about 47.5 hours. Thanks to the unlimited
\noptions we've got out there.<\/p>\n
OK, back to my holiday problem. My question to Jeeves was as
\nsimple as this: \"What should I do this holiday season, if I do
\nnot have either money or a boyfriend?\" Jeeves answered my
\nquestion by (1) Listing all the U.S. holiday dates; (2) Providing
\na nice tip on how to have a romantic dinner on Christmas Eve
\n(without telling me how to get a partner first); (3) Advice on
\nhow to get the \"life that I want\" because he said it was definite
\nthat I did not have one.<\/p>\n
Anyway, although I failed to find the perfect holiday plan,
\nall the soul-searching made me realize that happiness is
\nsomething that must be achieved in the here and now. Some might
\nexpress this feeling later when they are becoming richer,
\nthinking this will make them happier. Some might say that if they
\nknew that their life was so miserable as they got older, they
\nwould have enjoyed their younger days more. So happiness is a
\npresent time need; you can always choose to be happy no matter
\nwhat you do or who you are.<\/p>\n
After a while, I at last began to consider myself to be quite
\nfortunate. I could still enjoy my days in the not so fresh
\nJakarta air and a healthy body, with lovely parents to come home
\nto. I could also whistle the Jingle bells tune on my way home as
\nloud as I wanted to in this holiday season without getting \"the
\nlook\" from everybody. I might not have Pamela Anderson's figure,
\nbut men still offer me their seats whenever I have to stand in a
\nbus.<\/p>\n
My plan for this upcoming holiday season is to clean up my
\ncloset and donate all my one-size-too-small-and-I-hate-the-model
\nclothes that I have had since I was in college. Well, at least I
\ntook a tiny part in the effort to make the world a better place
\nto live in. My second best plan is still to watch the Dawson's
\nCreek rerun on TPI. So for you all readers, cheers and enjoy the
\nholiday!<\/p>",
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