Around this time of the year, I always think about an overlooked demographic for whom Christmas means nothing.
People who come from broken homes. Abusive father or mother. Divorced parents. Fucked up extended family. And the orphaned.
And boy, do we ever stop to think how modernity has messed our lives.
See, Christmas is all about belonging. It is a such a selfish and selfless season that you have to decide where you want to spend it.
There is a crowd on Nairobi presently locked in their houses, watching stuff on TV. Unbothered.
The guys you hear watching movies late into the night.
It reminds me of a conversation I had with a lady friend around this time a few years back. In fact, she had chosen work over joining her siblings for Christmas. Her mother remarried after the first divorce and she never quite clicked with her new boyfriend. So when she became an automanous person, she has kept her distance from home. It helps to say that there is nothing wrong with the step-father, just she doesn’t feel his vibe. Which is OK.
But since friends, and other family members always have a formula for Christmas, chances are the people without strong families(families with a patriarch and a strong matriarch) who raised children) will be in bars this evening, just to kill time.
There is also the curse of bad siblings. Irresponsble siblings. Uncaring siblings. Selfish siblings. Siblings with bad spouses.
I once asked a lady, why she couldn’t join her sister for Christmas and she told me straightforward, “Bwana yake ako na tabia mbaya.”
Of the worst feelings in the world, this one takes the biscuit. To have blood brothers and sisters that you cannot meet and roast a chicken as you sip bad beer from cans, as Andrew’s wife makes her signature chapatis and last born Norman stews matumbo…damn.
All in all, each adult life is an individual existence, plagued by demons, bad reminders of our choices and the choices of those around us and how they affect our daily lives.
The beauty of life, solitude is far better than being where you are not wanted.
For me, someone tell me the best way I can get all the James Bond movies and bingewatch.
