Well it’s Christmas again…

I Love it

One of the great things about getting older (as opposed to ‘growing up’) is that you really don’t have to give too much of a flying shit what people think any more 🙂

Gone are my teenage years when it wasn’t cool to be enthusiastic about anything, and adopting a cynical attitude to everything was the only way to behave. Bloody hell I must have frowned for the best part of 5 years!

Sadly there are still many adults who think this way (miserable gits) but that’s their problem.

These days I find that if I see something that’s interesting (and there’s a LOT out there) I’m like a 5 year old asking questions and investigating. Both my children (not yet teenage cynics but getting there) were mortified with embarrassment when I found a stall selling fake snow at a Christmas market the other day.

This was some kind of harmless powdered polymer that when you added water to it, behaved in an unusual way – becoming cold, expanding and taking on the characteristics of a kind of ‘dry’ snow.

Well both kids politely refused the stallholders invitation to try it out (a nice gentle sales technique I thought – put the product into the hands of your prospect)

But I got elbow deep in the demo tub, squishing it and flicking at around, asking all sorts of questions about chemistry and their business model.

The smallholder obviously thought I was trying to pinch their business especially when I asked if they had the patent (they don’t) to the product. But I wasn’t. It was just fun. I bought two lots of it but neither of my kids seemed that interested 🙂

I’ve read in so many motivational and inspirational books that developing a child-like sense of wonder can do remarkable things to your outlook on life and I’m lucky in that although I’m a quiet bloke, this comes naturally to me.

Life of course can FORCE you to take things seriously – I’m not denying that – but it does your soul good when you get the chance to act like a dick now and again, even in the smallest ways. Having kids of course gives you a great excuse, because you can get weird looks from people otherwise.

But Christmas can be a good excuse too. Our house is currently decorated like a gay brothel but what the Hell? SOME of it will go back in the decorations box after Christmas (although some won’t), so I reckon it’s time to celebrate how much fun can be found in life.

Not constantly – that would be knackering – but just now and again it’s good to get enthusiastic, make a fool of yourself or prod something to see what happens.

It’s a big part of why I love this time of year…it’s a great EXCUSE 🙂

•