Christmas - Being Alone, Solitude, Lonliness - Coping

This is the time of year which is very difficult for a lot of people. They are surrounded by images which have little or no bearing on their actual lives - Christmas. Giving & receiving gifts, Tables loaded with scrumptious food & drink, Parties, Happy Families, Smiling children. Stores & TV adverts deluge us in jolly Christmas music....It's all so false. Whatever reason we originally started to celebrate Christmas in the distant past has been lost, drowned in a deluge of consumerism & superficiality.

People who live alone, however good most of their friends & family are, know they simply have no idea what it's like to be alone - all the time. Coping with absolutely everything yourself & being on your own the vast majority of the time - Waking up every day alone, eating every meal alone, watching TV alone in the evenings.....For some people, knowing that the chances of dying on their own are increasing as time passes. The happy family image is far, far away from so many people's actual experience.

Then there are the "just about managing", the destitute & homeless. People for whom Christmas just highlights how far away they are from the images. The Big Issue sellers in Summertown, P & D, are more concerned about paying their energy bills than Christmas food.

We who are fortunate all spend too much at Christmas. I walked past at least 7 homeless people sleeping in shop doorways in Oxford's main street last Saturday. What on earth does Christmas mean to them? The street was thronged with shoppers carrying packages, walking past as if they didn't exist.

 

Councils are housing 120,540 children with their families in temporary shelter, an increase of 32,650 extra children since 2014. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/social-housing-homeless-children-temporary-accomodation-rise-40-per-cent-over-third-a7853861.html

Whatever income group we belong to, whatever our circumstances,  we cope with our lives - There isn't a choice. We, the fortunate, should stop & think. We should do something positive, not just at Christmas.

Christmas is like Angels breath, it is a mirage, it doesn't exist.