With the holiday’s in full swing, now is often the time to feel that often unsettling feeling that I simply refer to as the rush.  Many probably have felt this feeling throughout the year, but come the holiday’s it seems to amplify to a pitch somewhere north of fa-la-la-la-la.  No matter how much hard eggnog or Starbucks holiday seasoned concoctions you may drink, the rush finds you and reminds you what you should be doing.

Maybe you need to rush to the store to pick up a present.  Maybe you feel rushed to get something done at work.  Could be that the warm rush you feel the fact that someone just spilled coffee all over your back, only then to feel the rush of frustration as they seemingly do not care?  Oh, the rush.  It presents itself in so many ways.

I tend to want to blame the rush and it’s friend stress on what appears to be the inevitable lack of spirit the holiday’s take on.  Any recent trip to a store might lead one to believe that there is no such thing as common courtesy when the rush and stress of the season has people on the move.  Decorated with holiday tidings and happy music playing, I was bowled through not once but twice on a recent trip, all in the name of grabbing something off a shelf.  A simple excuse me would have compelled me to move; the rush of your cart into my leg was not necessary.  I do appreciate the complete lack of regard for my existence, and the fine example you were setting for your children.

Similar second hand instances leave me to believe that people really are in a rush.  The case of my sister-in-law reporting people taking toys from children and other shoppers carts while she worked retail on Black Friday. The case of my wife being run off the road by someone who felt necessary to pass three cars in a no passing zone on her way home from shopping.

Popular knowledge claims that holiday spirit in the public forum has long since passed.  The rush and stress of shopping and travel create a lack of common courtesy and subsequently zap the public world of the holiday spirit by creating angry people.  Somehow the self-centered persona that all to often graces the shopping malls and aisles and has nothing but disregard for all those around them has become the norm rather then exception.

This very fact came up during a recent visit to the bank.  I asked the young bank teller if she had done any holiday shopping to which she replied she had not.  When I asked her why, her reply was telling: “I was raised to say thank you and excuse me and have a level of respect. The last time I was in a store, someone bumped into me and I got cursed at for being in the way. People aren’t nice any more.”

Begging for next month

The rush can leave us begging for January to come in hopes that this lack of common courtesy and spirit will come to pass once the holidays have moved on.  Focusing on our bad experiences and the sometimes striking moments (I’m talking to you seven year old boy who cursed like a sailor in the checkout line for not getting something he wanted) can often leave us feeling the need to rush to bed in hopes to wake up from a bad dream.  No doubt it would be easy to do for me; I was run over by a shopping cart.

Instead of focusing on the poor aspects of human nature, I try very hard not to blame the rush for the lack of merriment during the holidays.  I do have a choice in the end (as do you) as to what makes you happy, and while sometimes it is a hard road to take, I find that even in a rush with coffee down my back there is still good times to be had.  I make an effort to smile more when I’m out and about.  I make it a point to burst into holiday songs when things look bleak.  I brush off the bad, and focus on spreading my happiness.

Next time you feel the rush, breathe.  If you can, slow the rush down; you’ll be better to yourself and to those around you.  I know, it’s hard, there are mean people out there.  But if you let the rush run your life, you may turn into one of them.  I speak from experience, I’ve been on the brink of rush-induced unkind displeasure occasion lived petulant holiday (RUDOLPH for short…you may even end up with a red nose).

As for me, I’m going to rush off and stop looking for holiday spirit. I’m going to make some of my own.