A lazy Sunday afternoon

The number of shopping days to Christmas is quickly ticking down, with two more weekends to go, but being December, the nights are closing in towards the solstice and it's dark and cold outside in this part of the planet. So, why go out and face the elements, when you can sit in front of your screen and be bombarded by online advertising from everyone you've ever bought stuff from in the past.

The Sunday supplements are full of glossy leaflets, encouraging conspicuous consumption, and they still manage to keep coming, even when you shake the newspaper over a wastepaper basket to get rid of the looser ones. To quote the great Tom Lehrer :

"Christmas time is here, by golly,
disapproval would be folly,
deck the halls with hunks of holly,
brother, here we go again"

So, toy-shopping for God-children aside, much of what I need to get for friends and family is available from the comfort of my desk at home, with a big mug of warm chocolate sitting next to me. All the major physical effort is left to the postmen who have to deliver all this stuff to my front door, rather than being stuffed down chimneys by a fictitious, bowdlerized version of a pagan Nordic demigod, dressed up for modern audiences by the Coca-Cola company.

Does this make me feel slightly guilty? Well, yes, actually. If it's the thought that counts, my first thought is that I really don't want to go out in the cold, irrespective of whether what I really want to get for my nearest and dearest is easily available online. Having said that, most things make me feel guilty, including drinking mugs of warm cocoa, when I could be out saving the planet from global warming, helping little old ladies to cross the road (particularly if they actually want to do so) or campaigning for world peace and harmony. I even might want to contemplate getting my garden into some semblance of tidiness, but that might be a step too far.

So, it's a lazy Sunday afternoon for me, keeping myself snug at home, and feeling a little touch of ennui. I can't help but feel that King Wenceslas was a far better man than I, and that technology is turning me into a cosy little couch potato. So should I feel guilty?