‘Merry Christmas’ mostly gracious statement

“Dutch, you’re a fat pig and you dress funny.” Ouch! Yeah, that offended me!

But clearly when I was told that, the intention was to offend me. My mom says some harsh things!

“Dutch, you would be healthier if you lost weight and I bet you’d look nicer in a Polo shirt rather than that stained up tank top.” Much better! A smaller “ouch” ... hurt maybe, but not offended.

In an age of hypersensitivity, past the point of irrational, there are people whose mission from the nanosecond they wake is to be offended. In an age when we are supposed to be enlightened, it is a wonder why we give these people any attention.

There are many loony examples when it comes to Christmas, but the best one was a parent complaining that the radio was on during her child’s bus ride to school and the radio “might” play a Christmas song. The school should have told this person to go away.

Some complaints have zero merit on their face. Instead, they were going to acquiesce to her maladaptive thinking but sanity prevailed and the radio is on.

Being offended is about “intent,” not “content.” Saying “Merry Christmas” cannot be offensive when it is said in the form of graciousness, which it is 99 percent of the time.

If I approach a man with a yamaka or Muslim garb and say “Merry Christmas,” sure, that’s offensive because I clearly can see he is man of faith that doesn’t celebrate Christmas so my purpose was to offend. But if you’re offended by graciousness? Then the problem lies with you, not everyone else, so grow up and leave everyone else alone.

Merry Christmas! ... Maybe. Santa is offended by whiners and he has plenty of coal shipped in from West Virginia every year for just such people.

This story was originally published December 9, 2016 at 4:38 PM with the headline "‘Merry Christmas’ mostly gracious statement."