My Christmas Spirit Needs an Exorcist

I've been going to church since I was ... born, probably.  Though I must admit, of the many, many bible quotes I've heard, one that always struck with me was the one about the proper way to pray. You're not supposed to throw ashes on yourself, wear ratty clothes and pray on street corners. The proper way is to pray in a closet, out of sight of everyone. You're not showing off, and you're not showing how good pure and noble you are, etc.

It's one reason why I'm not going into a lot of detail about what I've been doing lately.  The other reason is that it's really none of your business, it's someone else's private affairs,

Though I have to tell you, it's been an interesting month.

I've gone into some details here or there, but for the newcomers, let me catch you up.

For those people who have gathered / guessed, I was in Indiana helping a friend of mine not only bury her husband, but also do other things. Like move. Sort of. Suffice it to say that it's a long story, and it's none of your business. So there, nyah.

However, one of the things I've noticed is how many people are thanking me for doing this, or how many people are talking about how good a thing I'm doing.

At which point my reaction is, invariably, "What else would I do?"

No, seriously, a show of hands: you have a friend. Your friend suddenly has to bury someone near and dear to them. What do you do?

(A) Go help
(B) Stay away
(C) Send platitudes and do nothing else
(D) Help as much as you are able.

If you're a halfway decent human being, A or D is your answer. And I could do A.

And some of the people who expressed how good my actions were? Many of them were doing D -- researching legal questions and technical computer questions, and referring real estate people, or sending money, or passing the hat around.

Because guess what, people are good. Who knew? You know, aside from the book of Genesis.

At the end of the day, my Christmas spirit does not actually need an exorcist. Strange as that may be. I have practically been drowning in Christmas spirit -- there are literally dozens if not hundreds of people who have thrown support into this effort. At the end of the day, both my friend and I came out the other end of this relatively sane ... well, as sane as ever, so you do the math.

In short, the Christmas spirit is alive and well and acts in really odd ways.

And yet, somehow, through all of this, even the people who are piling in with the goodness, people think I'm doing the good deed.

But what else would I do? It's Christmas. And there are a lot of good people who have made all of this turn out far better than it otherwise could have.