{"id":4566,"date":"2018-12-17T08:07:22","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T07:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=4566"},"modified":"2019-02-04T11:49:51","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T10:49:51","slug":"the-first-third-of-the-christmas-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=4566","title":{"rendered":"The First Third of the Christmas Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sadness<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This weekend was a working one. I taught on Saturday and have numerous proofreads to do on top of a series of edits that need to be done for an article I have written which came back from my editor essentially dipped in virtual red ink. So instead of relaxing with Doctor Netflix and stew over a snowy and (oddly) rainy weekend, I was teaching, proofreading, and hunched over a computer looking for synonyms for \u201cvengeance.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know, I know. Woe is me, right? We all get under pressure and get stressed, especially when it comes to work related joys. And other than my obviously better looks and culinary prowess, I am no different from you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is bothering me currently is that it\u2019s Christmas time.I am a sucker for the Christmas season. The lights, the music, even the hustle and bustle bring me some comfort at a time of year when the daylight is literally cut in half and my workload is literally doubled. And Prague puts up charming markets and the pubs are full of the revelers of employee Christmas party season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, whether due to stress or worry, I am just not noticing it all. I walk with my head down, get to my flat, work hard. I\u2019ve consoled myself with the knowledge that there\u2019ll be time for reveling when I get on a British Airways airplane on December 22nd<\/sup> and order whatever alcohol they can get me fastest. But for the moment, I am missing the season and I don\u2019t like this.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I fully buy into the belief that Christmas (like its predecessors)were bright spots in a dark, otherwise scary and dismal time of year. The cheery atmosphere and the yuletide mirth are meant to hold back the anxiety of pressure and darkness. And if you go beyond the ring of lights cast by your house or your neighborhood, it\u2019s mostly dark and cold and scary out there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A whole lot of Christmas movies play with this idea, don\u2019t they? There\u2019s often a character who\u2019s stressed beyond words, under an immense pressure, or in trouble. George Bailey\u2019s worries were existential, Ralphie\u2019s were social and materialistic. But choose even the lowliest Christmas movie that Hallmark has to offer and you\u2019ll see that everyone is struggling with something(as are most characters). Whether it\u2019s loneliness, overwork, misplaced attention, or the need to find Bigfoot (truth), the main character of a Christmas movie usually spends the first third or so of the movie quite miserable.Sometimes they don\u2019t even know why. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we do know is that they won\u2019t end the movie miserable. By the end they will have found the true meaning of Christmas, found the love they didn\u2019t know they were looking for, resettled into the cozy little town that is more home than the big city where they are an ad exec. Something will change and their cold hearts will be penetrated by the Christmas Spirit and suddenly they will notice the lights, the mirth, the warmth, and the comfort. We, as viewers and no matter how corny we find it, know that this will happen. But they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing is, I currently feel as though I am in the first third of that movie. I am stressed, neglecting the lights and the fun. I haven\u2019t hung one decoration, visited one market, or watched a Christmas movie. I\u2019m also tightly-wound and irritable. I lectures the cat for ten minutes yesterday about turning off the faucet after drinking from it. When Burke accidentally broke a mug in the kitchen I was so angry my vision went blurry. When asked if I would attend the employee Christmas party this week I said \u201care you kidding? I have too much to do.\u201d And I meant it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have become that Christmas character who is in need of aB-2 shot of Christmas Spirit. Now, in the movie, we\u2019d know I was going to seethe light(s), appreciate the larger picture, and then come out of my funk for some big Christmas revelation. And while I hope that\u2019s true, I feel as though I am allowing superficial stresses ruin one of my favorite times of year. Perhaps it\u2019ll all have to wait until I work a butt groove into my seat on that airplane.Maybe I should watch only Christmas movies on the flight so my parents don\u2019t pickup Ebenezer Scrooge on Saturday afternoon. Or maybe I’ll just blow off work in lieu of a Christmas market and hot wine.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sadness This weekend was a working one. I taught on Saturday and have numerous proofreads to do on top of a series of edits that need to be done for an article I have written which came back from my editor essentially dipped in virtual red ink. So instead of relaxing with Doctor Netflix and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/damiengaleone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/peanuts.jpg?fit=2048%2C1550&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EvEu-1bE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4566"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4571,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566\/revisions\/4571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}