Orchestra

Unpopular opinion, but I am lukewarm about the Christmas season. The timing is terrible. It’s always at the end of the year that I am tired from work. I don’t love the commercialization of gifts. I am not a party person. I don’t even like Christmas music. I know, bah humbug.

A game changer was the first time I heard Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 is my holiday jam. Years ago, we got tickets to see them live. We had a babysitter for our little ones, dressed up, and headed to the theater for the show.

I am an early arriver, but the traffic was painful. We were still early, but the room was already filling up. We headed to our section and found people in our seats. Of course, I assumed I had made an error. Even though I repeatedly check seat assignments. Even on an airplane, I check my boarding pass three or four times on my way to my seat. I double-checked our tickets. These clowns were definitely in our seats.

I tentatively said, “I believe these might be our seats.” The man pointed to the people in the seats in front of him. I wasn’t sure what that meant, so I pretended to triple-check the ticket and look at the edge of the seats. He shrugged, pointed again, and said, “They are in ours.”

I was too tired for this. I didn’t want to make a fuss. I just wanted to enjoy the show. So, we slid into two empty seats. We had barely sat down when the actual ticket holders arrived. I could see them gearing up for the same exchange. I pointed across the aisle. “They are in our seats.” Which prompted our seat pirate to say, “They are in our seats.”

The people who started this mess ate their popcorn and pretended to be clueless. The new people fell in line and found a seat. Of course, the next set of folks came in to sit. The explanations started over. The available seats were getting worse. So they left.

They returned with the usher. The finger-pointing began. The usher said, “I need everyone in this area to move to their proper seats.”

The couple who triggered the seat chaos were angry. They grumbled about the narcs that made them move. “They are just seats.” Then they stomped off with their popcorn.

When I got to the show, I found a mess. I chose to look away and make it worse. Every one of us avoided addressing the issue and made it the next person’s problem until there was no one left to pass the issue off to.

Everything has a cost that someone must pay. When I avoid a confrontation, I am only delaying the discomfort. Sometimes the delay makes it worse. Sometimes I am just pushing the problem onto someone else.

What mess have I made someone else’s problem? Have I confused avoidance with delaying inevitable discomfort? What happens when we run out of people to pass this issue to?

Be curious, be kind, be whole, do good things.