Hi, everybody. I’m Mike Staver. This is Mondays with Mike, a weekly video series where I answer questions from people just like you.
This is my annual holiday message. This message is sometimes controversial but I’m going to say it anyway, Merry Christmas. I’m not saying Merry Christmas because I am disrespectful of those of you that celebrate Hanukkah, happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, happy Kwanzaa. Those of you that don’t celebrate at all, happy holidays. I’m fine with it. Here’s what I’m not fine with. I’m not fine with us judging other people for making a kind gesture. We’re way too sensitive in this world. We’re way too sensitive about the things people say like I’m offended.
You know what? Being offended doesn’t do anything, but be offended. It doesn’t make you bad or good or right or wrong. It just is offended. If I say Merry Christmas to you and you are Jewish and celebrate Hanukkah, it doesn’t mean that I’m disrespectful for you as a person of Jewish faith. It means I didn’t know. Take whatever gesture I give you and receive it well. Take the person at the store that says happy holidays and don’t feel like they’re offending you because they don’t say Merry Christmas. That didn’t seem very happy holidays, did it? Here’s my holiday message for you. As Mr. Rogers once said, we need to make kindness popular again. This is a time of year where we need to make it popular.
Whether it’s happy holidays or happy Hanukkah or Merry Christmas or happy Kwanzaa or you don’t celebrate at all, my hope is that the gesture of peace on earth, goodwill to everyone will be the theme for you and for me and for all those we love and care about that. During this season, we will return to a sense of being centered in a sense of caring, in a sense of humanity. We’ve been through a lot over the last couple of years and we really need this sense of caring more, thicker skin, less easily offended, and for frustrated. Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa, happy whatever it is you celebrate. I want you to know that for me in my house, we celebrate Christmas and it’s a Merry Christmas.
It’s a Merry opportunity for us all to celebrate what’s right in the world, what is good about humanity. What matters matters. That it is time that we as a humanity, we as a group, we as a world use our words to elevate the world. That we do things that matter and that we take this time to be still and to appreciate the blessings that we’ve been granted. From all of us at the Staver Group and from my family to you and friends and colleagues, I hope that this season of the year provides abundance for you and it really does yield peace on earth, at least in the earth where you live, in the world where you live and Goodwill to those around you. Take care.
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