HARTFORD, CT--As the nation moves on from last month's family
gatherings, churchgoing, and goodwill toward men, the annual
post-Christmas readjustment process is proceeding on schedule, with
millions of Americans forgoing their temporary generosity of spirit
and resuming their petty, miserable treatment of one another.

Though the joy and glad tidings of the holiday season are mere weeks
behind us, sources report that more than 85 percent of 2007's
Christmastime lessons have already been forgotten, with that number
expected to reach 98 percent by as early as next week.

"Christmas is a magical time of year when people of all ages and
backgrounds put aside their differences and are reminded of the things
that truly count: the joy of giving, the gleam in a young child's eye,
and the sound of voices raised together in song," said James Samuelson
of the Hartford-based Institute For American Cultural Mores & Values,
which tracks the rise and fall of human love and kindness throughout
the year. "Mid-January to early February, by contrast, is a magical
time of year when people forget all about that stuff. This leads to
mid- to late February, a magical time of year when people everywhere
feel overpowering, soul-crushing emotional pain, causing them to hate
their coworkers, their loved ones, and themselves."

Evidence of this phenomenon can be seen across the country, with
Christmas miracles of universal benevolence and spiritual uplift
degenerating into mid-January miracles of everyday banality and
neglect. Corporations that donated generously to the homeless and
various charities mere weeks ago have resumed their usual cutthroat,
profit-driven practices. Children who learned the important lesson
that it is better to give than receive are refusing to share their
expensive new toys with less fortunate playmates, gloating over their
possessions and berating the other children for being poor. And the
many career-focused dads who made a major breakthrough during the
holiday season, vowing to spend quality time with their wives and
children, are systematically unlearning these realizations of what
truly matters and returning to their dysfunctional workaholic
patterns.

"I hadn't seen my ailing grandmother, who just turned 91 and lives all
alone out in Arizona, in over three years," said Boston investment
banker Carl Thompson on Dec. 27. "But then, the wife and I, along with
several other members of our church, went caroling at the homes of
various elderly shut-ins as part of our holiday outreach program. As I
looked into the eyes of those poor souls, so happy to have visitors on
this blustery winter evening, I learned a valuable lesson about life,
about family, and about myself. It was hard to book a flight out to
Phoenix at the last minute, but just when it looked like there were no
seats left, a reservation was canceled, and I made it out there to
visit Grandma in time for Christmas Eve. It was a Christmas miracle.
I know that God wanted me to be on that plane."

When asked about his grandmother again Tuesday, Thompson said, "That
old bag? Christ, she didn't call again, did she? Does she think the
world revolves around her and her stupid heart-medication stories she
drones on and on about all day and night? Jesus, I'm a busy man here."

Janice Frye, 34, a Los Angeles single mother, related a similarly
moving story on Dec. 29.

"My 6-year-old son Brandon is a real handful, suffering from
hyperactivity and a whole host of emotional problems. Sometimes the
stress of taking care of him all by myself is just too much. But then,
when I think of the little baby Jesus lying in the manger, I realize
how special and wonderful Brandon really is. On Christmas Eve, when
he gave me a drawing he made that said, 'I Love Mommy,' I knew he is
the one true light of my life."

Less than two weeks later, the screaming and dish-throwing that
typifies Frye's emotionally abusive relationship with her child had
resumed. Neighbors reported overhearing Frye yell, "I should have had
you aborted," and the child's antisocial behavior and poor
performance in school have worsened.

Such forgetting-the-Christmas-spirit stories are not uncommon.
According to Samuelson, the process is not only normal, but essential
to preserving the special feeling associated with the holiday.

"The positive, soul-enriching sentiments associated with the holiday
season are shared by almost all Americans, regardless of religious
beliefs or cultural backgrounds," Samuelson said. "But it is only
through our regular mean-spirited shallowness the rest of the year
that the spirit of Christmas can, by contrast, move us so deeply,
deluding the populace into thinking their lives are actually
beautiful. If everybody behaved so kindly to one another all year
round, Christmas wouldn't seem special at all. And then, the magic of
Christmas would be lost forever, swallowed up by a year-round sense
of basic human decency that would rob the holidays of their warm
glow, ruining Christmas for all the little children of the world."

"If you think about it, the eleven and a half months of cruelty,
selfishness, and disrespect exhibited by nearly all of humanity may,
in fact, be the most precious gift of all," he added, wiping a tear
from his eye. "It is this non-holy miracle of man's non-holiday
inhumanity to man that is the true meaning of Christmas."