It’s holiday time ladies, so hit we here at "the Odyssey" want to hit the ground running and get pumped for the season. This holiday season I want to write for a little bit about the aspects of Christmas and the holidays that speak most to me. And maybe there will be a few surprises along the way.

First, I want to say that I am a religious person. I am religious to the point that I believe in a god but I believe that all paths to god are ok. I believe that doing good things for other people is a path to God, even if you don’t believe in God. If you do something to help someone else I believe you are connecting to God. If you don’t believe in any God you may yell at me for forcing my religion down your throat. To you I say, “That’s not what I’m doing. Shut up.” I think the holidays are the perfect time to not only advance our path to God, but to make other people feel good about themselves.

Alright that’s enough about the religious part of the holidays, because let’s be honest the holidays aren’t all about religion, despite what religious fanaticals would have you believe. So now I would like to raise a glass, and toast to…

CONSUMERISM!

Let’s be honest the holidays are a whole lot of buying shiznitz AND I NEED ALL OF IT. None of it is superfluous or unnecessary. I need that singing dog, and I need a Christmas tree ornament that looks like a smaller Christmas tree to hang on my already heavily ornamented Christmas tree. I will buy these unnecessary gifts, because I have a fun sense of obligation placed on me by society and the companies that profit off of the sense of obligation they place on the consumers. You see the endless cycle. It is vicious and I love it. Watching companies make mints during the holidays is the same reason that at one point people watched people kill each other in the coliseums: it is fun to watch humans hurt each other.

Now I could make some big conjecture that this year I won’t buy tacky Christmas presents that companies make millions one. I could do that but I absolutely am not going to. As terrifying as the vicious cycle of a consumer driven society is, it is what I live in and how dare I deprive my mom of another necklace she doesn’t need or my dad of some golf accessory he will never use. They work so hard for me they deserve the tiniest bit of recognition.

In summation I would like to thank big business and society for giving me a healthy outlet to thank those people in my life who need to be thanked. And thank you to the whole holiday season for allowing and reminding me to be a good person. Now only if I ever listened.