1903: Easter Sunday

It’s Easter today. This is one of those days that declines in importance as you get further away from childhood, until you reach the point I’m apparently at today, where you just ignore it completely.

That’s kind of a shame, really, as it was fun to have specific days to look forward to for whatever reason — birthdays and Christmas for presents, Easter for chocolate — but I can’t help but feel that most of these occasions are made a big fuss of primarily for the benefit of children.

This isn’t a bad thing, of course; in many ways, modern children are being forced to “grow up” much too quickly, and thus allowing them days of unmitigated excitement about imaginary figures and the prospect of presents coming down from on high is an important part of allowing them to cling on to their childhood for as long as possible. There’s a difficult balance to strike as well, of course: ensuring that said children don’t end up spoiled and turning into those ungrateful (and probably fictional) brats that Buzzfeed et al dig up every so often, who whine on social media about getting the wrong colour iPhone or a car with a sunroof when they wanted a convertible or whatever.

Perhaps it’s just cynicism on my part that prevents me from enjoying these occasions as much as I did when I was younger. Perhaps it’s my depression contributing to matters, making me either unwilling or unable to just switch off and enjoy myself without worrying about the things that worry me every other day of the week. Or perhaps it really is the case that I’m too old to care about these things a great deal any more, and would rather just take aim at the big picture, the seemingly unattainable aim of having a quiet, peaceful life with no worries.

One thing I will say about ignoring Easter today, though, is that I haven’t really missed chocolate. In fact, I haven’t really had much chocolate since joining the Slimming World programme a while back. The “syns” system allows the flexibility to have a chocolate bar now and then, and there’s some tasty Slimming World-branded chocolate chewy bars that are rather nice, so I haven’t had to go entirely without sweet things. But as fun as it was to have a sideboard covered with various shiny eggs come Easter morning — and then to spend the next few weeks getting through them a bit at a time, feeling slightly guilty at ruining its pretty presentation every time I cracked another one open — I can’t say I’ve particularly missed it today. And my waistline will probably thank me for not having temptation lying around the house!

So, then, balls to Easter, I guess, and balls to the bank holiday tomorrow; it’s hard to enjoy and appreciate it when you’re not really getting time off from anything — but if you’re currently enjoying a four-day weekend away from work and the pressures of “real life”, I hope you continue to do so tomorrow, and that you, at least, enjoyed stuffing your face with chocolate this Easter Sunday.