Life Is Too Short Not to Start Listening to Christmas Music Today

The say every dark cloud has a silver lining. It's not true, but they say it because accepting the harsh reality that some bad things are just bad is too much for people to handle. So sure, let's pretend that every ostensibly horrible thing is a secret conduit to a good thing. No one gets hurt playing make-believe, right?

Where was I? Oh yeah, Christmas music.

Never had much use for it beyond the normal appreciation. If there was anything remarkable about my disposition toward the topic it'd be a preference for the religious fare over secular. O, Holy Night always got me. Silent Night, too. But growing up, it was only a small sect of real weirdos who started to listen to holiday-themed music before Thanksgiving. And they were treated -- at least in my house -- with the requisite distrust.

Things changed, though. Retailers began to understand that they could extend pre-Christmas all the way to Halloween. Radio stations, desperate for relevance, realized they could change their entire catalog for two months. More real estate begat a bigger demand for songs that could exist on those platforms.

Slowly and surely, Christmas tunes crept into apple-picking season. Today, November 1, is widely accepted as the line of demarcation. A day on which one must decide when they'll start listening to the sounds of the season.

And folks, let me tell you, after considering my own mortality and the fleeting happenstance of life, I've come around on the topic. Life is too short to wait a few extra weeks each year to listen to Christmas music if you like Christmas music. It's definitely too short to judge others for doing so.

Soon enough we'll all be dust and won't be able to hear Deck The Halls or Jingle Bells.

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What then? That principled stand to not enjoy something before it was truly time to do so will look pretty silly and trivial.

Dark stuff? Maybe. But I'd be remiss if I didn't share my revelation and transformation with others in the hope they, too, could milk a shred of extra joy out of existence.

So give in, good people, to Mariah Carey. Aspire to one percent of her energy. It is its own reward whereas denying yourself the fruits of the season has no greater prize.

Life's too short. Let the carols begin.