OUR WICKED, WICKED PAST

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December 22, 2017

I’m not a person who spends wistful hours longing for the good old days But sometimes, the good old days begin to sound better and better.

Back in the good old days, men and women not only liked and respected one another, but they lusted after one another as well. It wasn’t as though they were bad people. Most of them wanted to be good people, but the lustful devils inside them kept wanting to get out and play.

Fooling around during working hours is frowned upon, even if temptation abounds, so people would get together and let down their hair on special occasions – occasions such as the annual office Christmas party. In order to lower the threshold for the evil spirits to emerge, these parties often featured alcohol.

During these parties, people would behave badly, make fools of themselves, sometimes do things that they would later regret, and hopefully – but not always – learn from the experience. The Christmas party wasn’t exactly a sinful bacchanal, but it was a place where people could relax, get better acquainted, and be themselves. And after the celebration, the people in the workplace knew each other a little better, and appreciated each other as flawed and often silly human beings.

Sometimes all the alcohol not only brought out the playful side of people but on occasion the ugly side as well. And people remembered that too.

If somebody didn’t want to participate in the celebration, they usually left before the booze kicked in and the fun-loving devils emerged. And that was fine.

Getting together, drinking, and everybody letting down their hair, was not exactly a new idea among folks.

People in the old days and even in the old, old days, recognized this and set aside special times for it. Like Carnival or Mardi Gras, both wisely timed just before everybody had to give up something for Lent. For the unaware, Lent is a six-week-long religious observance during which Christians give up some pleasurable thing in repentance for their sins and in observance of Jesus’ 40 days fasting in the desert. It ends at the Easter holiday.

The Mardi Gras tradition began with pagan religion as a rite of Spring and fertility, but was folded into Christianity when the pagans converted. Since they already were going to spend six weeks repenting their sins, folks liked the idea off kicking up their heels a little before they had to ask for forgiveness.

So having a party and getting to know one another better is a long-standing human tradition.

Then the lawyers got involved, as they always do, and the politically correct began lamenting that some people were taking advantage of other people. They were not mistaken. People taking advantage of each other is something that human beings do. Some people are really good at it.

Shame on those people. We should ostracize them from polite company. In the meantime, that certainly doesn’t mean the rest of us should stop enjoying each other’s company, drunk or sober.

So now, the office Christmas parties – long-since renamed “Holiday” parties – are downright boring. One place we recently visited had a Holiday party so dreadful, that employees got together and held their own secret underground parties away from the prying eyes of senior management. We attended one of those parties and it was great fun.

In fact, it kind of reminded us of the good old days.

– George Lee Cunningham

Do you have a dissenting opinion or any opinion at all on the subject? Contact me at george@georgeleecunningham.com and let me know. Meanwhile, you can always subscribe and get an email reminder of blog postings. Your name will not be shared and you may cancel at any time.

News

April 17, 2024

Minor Character

Sometimes I feel like a minor character in one of those really long James Michener historic novels. I’m one of the guys they check in on a couple of times during the course of the book and one more time when he finally kicks the bucket. In truth, that suits me just fine. I don’t want to be one of the major players – those guys who lie, cheat, sleep around, make a lot of money, kill a lot of people, and then then suffer a tragic death on Christmas Eve. I just want to be me – plugging along, having some fun, loving the same woman for years, and then quietly passing away.

March 25, 2024

Cereal Killer

I have almost given up on cereal. As a younger man, I loved a sugary treat. As an old man, who has to watch his diet, I find myself checking labels on everything. Sugar is the enemy. For instance, Cap’n Crunch – a former favorite of my wife – contains: Corn Flour, Sugar, Oat Flour, Brown Sugar, Palm and/or Coconut Oil, Salt, Reduced Iron, Yellow 5, Niacinamide, Yellow 6, BHT, Thiamin, Mononitrate, Pridoxined Hydrochloride, Rioflavin, and Folic Acid. My choice: plain old Shredded Wheat. Ingredients: wheat and BHT (a harmless preservative). Not a taste treat, but at least I’ll live to tell about it

Highway Memorials

Driving across country nowadays, we notice a growing number of roadside displays – flowers, crosses, and ribbons – marking the sites where people apparently died in traffic accidents. I do understand mourning the passing of somebody you love, but I’m not sure I see the point of putting a display at the place along the road where they died. Even sadder is the fact that flowers wilt and highway trash piles up around the displays, making them just another sad reminder of life cut short.

December 5, 2023

Love Motives

I often tell my wife I love and adore her, mainly because I do and also because women like to hear the man in their life actually say the words. But during one conversation I had to confess that some times when I say it – especially when she is irked and giving me the deadly silent treatment – I am also reminding myself of that fact so I don’t start yelling and slamming doors. Is that so wrong?

Being Mortal

I am officially an old man. Sometimes I forget, then I look in the mirror and there it is. The truth is that life has its limits, and that is how it should be. There are new generations coming up, ready to step up and take our place. They are welcome to it. If you have reached old age, you have made some blunders in you life. If you think otherwise, then you are indeed a fool. You can warn the new generations about the mistakes you made, but they are oblivious. This too is as it should be. It’s their world, and it’s on them to screw it up for the generations to follow, just as we did for them.

Good Deeds

There is a saying that no good deed goes unpunished. It’s mostly – but not always – true. The problem with good deeds is that most people who do them expect to be appreciated. In actuality, good-deed recipients are more often resentful about it, rather than grateful. Nobody likes being the person who has to rely on the good will of others. So do good deeds for your own sake – because it makes you feel better, not because you want to be feel appreciated.

Recreational Bitching

Did you ever notice that some people – maybe more people than not – like to complain about everything? In the summertime, it’s too hot. In the wintertime it’s too cold. Health care is too expensive. Young people are too rude. Old people move too slowly. There ought to be a law against anything and everything that might make one unhappy. It’s recreational bitching, and we all do it to greater or lesser extent. Maybe once in a while, it might make sense to listen to how we talk and how we think. Most of us are just doing the best that we can.