All I’m asking each of you to do this year is to eat reasonably, without seconds, thirds or eighteenths, and then ask for leftovers. Be bold. Ask. Grandma Perkins will love you for it. “Oh, goodness gracious…my baby (42, but still a baby) Harold loves my Sugar-Coated Ham-In-A-Can…how sweet.”

You’ll be invited back year after year, only next year she’ll give you something you actually can use that doesn’t require Tide.

Now, take those leftovers and find someone who doesn’t have a home or a place to go this year. Give them to him or her. Perhaps a stuffed bunny if they have a kiddo. We’re talking, what, $5 here?

Why am I always on about charity and this and that? Is it because I really ‘am’ the next Bono? No. I’m bigger than he is — he’s a midget.

It’s because (warning…transparency moment) I know what it feels like to be all alone during Christmas.

Sure, I have a lot of friends, and I haven’t ‘been’ hungry, truly hungry, in my entire life. However, all my friends seem to hail from distant places. Dallas is quite transient, so this makes sense. They naturally go home to large families and lots of little ones running about.

When I’ve been involved with someone, I would occasionally go home with her and experience what most of you will this year. That just left me with one problem — my mom. That leaves my only surviving relative out in the cold.

I was a daddy’s boy. When my father passed away, it was brutal — although I handled it very well with some help and some of my own tools. Yeah, I practice this stuff. Obviously this effected my mom far more than myself, given she was married to dad for 54 years.

Considering I’m the only brat, and my parents were twice as old as “normal” parents, you have the makings for a very lonely holiday for mom and me. Add on top of that the fact that neither parent cared for Christmas that much to begin with and…presto.

It was fun as a kid ‘cause it was all about me. It’s really lonely and boring as an adult most of the time unless I change that focus.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I enjoy my mom a lot. It’s not that. It’s the fact that it’s not the same as sharing something, even a holiday you don’t embrace, truly connected to another person. That’s the true meaning of all this hype.

I am happy and blessed beyond measure, but I have spent most of my adult years without that connection during the holidays. You can call it a hunger in the soul if you want to wax poetic. I’d rather you not. This is my decision and I don’t base my life off of emotions, but reason. I know this is best for me now, and I know this is not permanent.

But damn, it can suck.

So, I just picture that feeling times, oh, a thousand times worse or so — and toss in a wind-chill factor of -10. People without a home. Without a computer. Without a blog. Without an income. Without much of a life. And, without food.

Feeling sad yet? Good…that’s what I’m here for. Bring you down right before a holiday.

Kidding…

I want to see YOU bring yourself way, way up. Many of you are probably already doing stuff like this — giving food away, or giving to some other charity. Bravo! I’m just asking you to take leftovers in the form of a complete meal (or meals) to some people who otherwise will be bumming for money for booze, or scrounging through trash cans for Christmas dinner, wondering why the hell they should care about a supposedly “religious” holiday when they feel as if God and humanity spat in their face.

Right or wrong — that’s not the point. Many of these people are there because they have chosen to be there, either consciously or subconsciously. So what? We’ve all dealt with or are currently dealing with fat because we chose it. Do you want me or others to say, “Tough s — t pal, you took the low road. Why should I care about helping you? Besides, there’s probably some government thingy around that will assist, if you’d just get off your lazy ass and stop stuffing yourself. Geez…”

Don’t like that? Good…neither do I. That’s because I understand — I’ve been there, I’m right there with you, and I KNOW what it feels like to make decisions that you really do not want to make due to deep emotional and subconscious programming that’s just pure crap.

The result? You eat pure crap.

The result for these other folks is that they don’t eat at all.

There…now you’re all liberals.

So take the 10 Holiday Challenge and see if you can feed 10 people with some leftovers. If not, just one. Just don’t eat them yourself — deal?

Do you really need another serving? I didn’t think so.

WWJD? Feed people with his own hands, even if that meant doing without. Just a wild freakin’ guess here. You don’t have to be Christian or even hungry to pull it off nowadays. Just pass along the leftovers.

Let me know what happens when you pass along the greatest of all gifts in the process:

Love. {10}