Making Merry

"What's today?" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him.
"Eh?" returned the boy with all his might of wonder.
"What's today, my fine fellow?" said Scrooge.
"Today!" replied the boy. "Why, Christmas Day."

The holidays have arrived and everyone seems to have developed an uncharacteristic sense of decency, kindness, benevolence and all that we righteous celebrators of Christmas consider good and moral. Christmastime is that time of the year when we shower one another with benedictions, sit together for an evening meal in peace and harmony. During the rest of the year, of coarse, we make it a blatant point to carry out acts of pure malevolence, to malign every other organic life form and to be indifferent to the chaos and pitiable state of the world.
The birth date of christ sparks in each of us a sense of humility but that warm fire of compassion lasts only a mere 24 hours after which it is dried out by reality, the indomitable.