Beware The Demons Within
A good friend of mine threw a whole box of gift soaps across a store this weekend when he discovered he'd been charged the full price on his credit card, rather than the marked discount, and a refund was going to be, "difficult."
Another friend seethed with venomous anger when she realized a gift she'd been given for Christmas this year, by her daughter in law, is the very scarf that she had given to her last Christmas.
Two examples of normally controlled, polite English people turned into time-bombs under pressure. At some stage, we all forget ourselves and "revert to type."
That was "small" stuff, and a cup of tea later she was calm. It's not always so simple. It's not only personal stuff, and it's seldom solved with a cup of tea. It's bigger and potentially much worse.
When we're stressed we often revert to type, or just "be ourselves" - and that's often very anti-social. We all try hard to keep a lid on it when we revert to type but it does go wrong.
Thank goodness that in his culture the soles of shoes and a reference to dogs are considered the ultimate insult; it could have been so much worse.
As attention turns away from Iraq, toward Afghanistan, history tells us it is likely to become so much worse again. Out there in Afghanistan's Helmand Province, the Taliban know the hurt will be that much greater if they score a "hit" on U.S. or British forces during the Holiday Season. With headlines like these seen a lot lately:
"Coalition airstrike killed 89 civilians, many of them children…"
"Thirty Taliban insurgents, including Mullah Sadiq, a Taliban commander, were killed…"
"40 Taliban killed in Afghan-NATO operation…"
...It's likely the Taliban, too, will be reverting to type, being themselves. They know it's Christmas and they have little to lose. Stay tuned to the casualty statistics in "Operation Enduring Freedom." We can expect them to continue to make depressing reading.
And there's been depressing reading, for the first time, about President-elect Barack Obama. I watched with some amusement recently as ex-pat Americans in London discovered that there might just be a tiny Obama problem. Are the Chicago boys "reverting to type," asked one of my friends who knows a bit of American history.
The story reminded those of us who avidly read this stuff that Chicago politics can be pretty frothy and creative – and maybe it still is. Mike Royko's great little book about Chicago politics paints terrific background.
It may be stretching things to suggest Obama's staff are reverting to type, but watching from Europe, it could look that way.
Dreams of Santa are out this year, too, thanks to a British substitute teacher reverting to type and telling her tearful class there is no Santa.
Most of us, though, will stick our heads in the sand for the next several days and ignore it all.
Somali Pirates, battling Greeks, Indian anxiety and Pakistani threats, Israel, Palestinians, ambitious Russians, terrorism and the rest. We will manage to "be ourselves," to "revert to type." We will eat, drink, buy and neglect our way through the holiday season.
We will anaesthetize ourselves from reality, we will be "ourselves," but a more extreme version, just for Christmas.