Xmas eve dinner on the Andiamo...
That’s right, I’ve now spent five, count ‘em FIVE xmas’es aboard Andiamo. On some levels, I find that number staggering. But then again, every holiday aboard has been wholly unique and special in its own way.
This year, the holidays were spent with the Bargons aboard. They were a lively bunch from the Northeast US that blocked Andiamo for a private sail the whole last week of December. We got super lucky with the weather, and dare I say, with the lobster, as can be seen above.
So needless to say, it was a great holiday week. There was great weather, good company, great food and festivities. But yet, I find something to gripe about. I guess I wouldn’t be me if that weren’t the case.
One thing I noticed this time around me in the “real world” as well as my “virtual world” via Facebook, Twitter, and whatnot, is the amount of pressure people put themselves under during the holidays. Why do they do that? Some friends and/or acquaintances of mine actually bitched about the holidays because they couldn’t “afford” them this time around. Or because they were not with someone they wanted to be with or were alone, etc.
But what really sticks in my craw is when I consider the enormous amount of money that gets wasted over these holidays, no doubt. This is in my opinion generally true in most parts of the first world. Maybe the US tempered their holiday binging a bit due to the crappy economy. Here in Panama, as in most of Latin America, it’s FAR more egregious than what I’ve seen in the states.
Why? Because here in Panama, for example, people shop til they drop even though they can’t afford to. Yes, that’s what people back in the states and pretty much anywhere else in the first world do. But here, it’s far more intense simply because people don’t have anywhere near the money or income to finance a worthy holiday celebration in the first place.
Consider that in Panama the average take-home pay is about $350 to $400 per month. Yet, despite these meager average wages, your average Panamanian spends rabid amounts of money on their holiday celebrations. Furthermore, the catholic church, who has long had a stronghold on Latin America, virtually demands their parishioners give even MORE this time of year than usual.
Most poor Latinos have a lot of trouble saving any money. It doesn’t help that they are exploited to the teeth by the exploitative consumerism that surrounds them at every turn. Few of them are willing or able to snap out of the ether effect that is brought on by the holidays. So they simply spend money that they really shouldn’t (or don’t have) so they can “keep up with the Jones’es”. The result, at least in Panama, according to a news report last year, is sobering. The number of disconnections of utilities such as electricity and water, TRIPLED last January over their monthly average after the holidays. Evictions due to non-payment of rent more than DOUBLED last February. All telltale signs that some people have no idea when to call it a day when it comes to holiday spending. For some (mostly the people and companies who profit from this madness), think it’s considered economically healthy for people to squander their hard-earned cash to keep all this insanity alive and going. For me, it’s just stupid and in some cases, just downright tasteless.
But I digress, so to return to the original point of all this. As I said before, some people I talked to whine and moan about how their lives are so lonely or not how they want it. Some will go as far as questioning their self-worth or cry about being alone during the holidays.
Quite frankly, it’s got to stop. People who otherwise go through the rest of the year ok being alone should be able to endure the holidays alone too. All the hype about holidays is really just that. Hype. These past five years, I’ve had both kinds of “holidays”, spent with significant others and/or friends and some spent alone with just me on the boat. And I’ve come to appreciate both. Maybe it’s because I long ago let go of the “pressure” associated with the holidays. Seems to me that some other people I know can benefit from letting go too. Just how I see it. 
