'Tis the Season

Like a lot of other skilled professionals, many IT workers are probably somewhat going through the motions around the office right now. Everyone is taking it easy, passing out gifts to coworkers, dressing up for the company Christmas party, and sort of generally running out the clock on 2017. There will be plenty of time for all of us to relocate the grindstone and get our noses back where they belong in January.

There are probably a fair number of you out there who aren't casually settling into a holiday lull and using your office PC to buy tickets to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi, or complete your holiday shopping online. Maybe you have jobs working for the United States Postal Service, or perhaps Amazon or Walmart. For some in the workaday world, there's no busier time on the calendar than the pre-Christmas consumerist blitzkrieg.

Even if December is your busiest month of the year, however, we here at TestOut Continuing Education hope that you can find a moment to reflect. Take a break, look around, catch your breath, and think about those we all see or know about who don't have all of the blessings of home, or health, or happiness with them this holiday season. There are people in every city around the world who lack for some of the most basic necessities.

For many, if not most of us, Christmas is a season of abundance, whether of gifts, or treats, or even just friendship, love, and holiday cheer. There are people everywhere, however, whose lives are challenging and difficult to the point that most of us, thrust into equivalent circumstances, would probably spend our first 24 hours simply weeping and terrified. We can all do more to help, and not only at Christmas.

Christmas is a good time to get started, however, on bettering the lot of those who suffer. Even those of us who can't offer as much as we'd like in terms of money, or supplies, or services, can give time, attention, smiles, and kind words. If your budget is strained to the breaking point (as many people's are come the last few weeks before Dec. 25), then look around for opportunities to volunteer your time, physical energy, and bright holiday spirit.

And if you do have the means, then pick a charitable organization and make someone's life a little better, a little brighter, and a little more hopeful. Christmas is a season of giving. Don't forget to give to the most vulnerable and destitute among us.

Note: The IT Insights blog is taking Friday off, but will return on Monday.