George McGinty

I cannot believe that I have not uttered those words for a whole year. It is about that time again when I begin. I know a lot of people love to hate me for it and very many would really love to see me roast in hell like one of Gordon Ramsey’s famous scallops but who cares?

Almost every single time this season comes around I am plagued with myriad things that I just do not need in my life. For instance why in the world do I have to break my already malnutritioned piggy to put a smile on someone’s face? If I love them then they know it already and I should not have to fork over a Gucci bag just to make them smile. Does it not then cease to be love right there?

That is not really the main reason but just one of the many because let us face it, Mr Scrooge was not strapped for cash and neither am I despite the near great depression we just went through. People will have runny noses and all they will want is kiss on this cheek and a kiss on that. I hope I do not end up under mistletoe. Bah humbug!

I had never known how important some things were in my life until this moment. No doubt you will put your value on this and on that but you never really know the value until that point in your life when things come crashing all around you. Until everything around you is as dark as it was for me at that very moment. So dark that you know there is some truth to it when scientists speak of dark matter. You feel like you can reach out and touch it.

The taste in my mouth was nothing like anything I had ever tasted. I thought of all the people I knew and wondered how many were wondering what I was going through. None of them could possibly come close to knowing what this felt like. With every step closer to freedom I got I realized that all of us take too much for granted. I kept procrastinating on saying I love you and doing things that I was meant to do when I was meant to do. I could hear the rescue searchers pull away the last of the debris that had buried me alive in the earthquake. I had every tax payer that employed these fire men to thank for this breath of fresh air.