Why the Grinch won't steal our Christmas ~ By Patrice Lewis

Commentary from WorldNetDaily

By Patrice Lewis Posted: December 26, 2009 ~ 1:00 am Eastern © 2009 Recently I had an interesting e-mail exchange with a favorite long-time reader. On my blog entry for Thanksgiving he saw a photo of our dinner table and guest. He wrote: "Your Thanksgiving dinner and your home both look impossibly warm, cozy and homey." Ha ha, fooled him. Our house, cozy? Silly man. I wrote back, "LOL – our home is a fixer-upper with half the walls stripped, unpainted or missing. If you look closely at the panel behind our friend's head, you'll notice it's actually not there. What's showing is pink insulation. One of these days we'll fix it up. ..." He wrote back a scolding note: "Sheetrock doesn't make a home." He related the story of a wayward child who had caused him much heartbreak through her bad choices, but who had straightened out her life and returned to the fold, to his great joy. "Trust me, Patrice," he concluded. "That beats the hell out of sheetrock any day." He's right, of course. Absolutely positively dead-on right. I needed the kick-in-the-pants reminder. You see, for a moment I'd fallen into the classic trap: That externals count more than internals. That things are more important than people. That happiness is defined by income, not relationships. That a beautiful home supersedes those who live in it. It's kind of like the Tiger Woods syndrome: You can be the richest and most successful person in the world, but if your personal relationships are shot to hell, then what good is wealth and fame? Advertisers are very clever at making us feel inadequate if we don't have the Perfect House, the Perfect Tree, the Perfect Presents and other Perfect things during Christmas. Madison Avenue shows us beautiful skinny people dressed in designer clothing surrounded by adorable and well-behaved children opening beautifully wrapped gifts under a tree laden with exquisite hand-made ornaments in homes that could be lifted from the pages of Architectural Digest. They never show people sitting around in ratty sweat clothes with toys scattered on the floor, dirty dishes in the sink and major decorating defects like decades-old avocado-green appliances or scarred walls. They never show a lopsided Christmas tree under which are inexpensive gifts wrapped in brown paper grocery bags with bows saved from last year. They never show walls with missing sheetrock or no paint. It's the job of advertisers, after all, to make us feel defective, because only then can they convince us our defects will be cured by buying their product. As soon as our living environment achieves the shimmer and sophistication of the images they project, then we'll be … Perfect. What no advertiser can admit, though, is without a peaceful relationship with family, friends and our Maker, no amount of "perfect" will ever cut the mustard. Just ask Tiger if you don't believe me. READ FULL STORY >