Do I Seinfeld much? Apparently, yes. lol
A holiday that bravely pairs emotional honesty with wrestling. Say what bothered you all year and then prove your strength. The audacity of the sequencing alone deserves respect.
I have a soft spot for Festivus because I used to be very good at both parts. I could air a grievance with precision and passion. I could also win feats of strength without breaking a sweat. Not by physical pinning, but by logic, stamina, moral clarity, or sheer conversational dominance. If someone left the exchange a little stunned, I felt accomplished.
What I know now is this. Grievances were never the problem. Strength was never the problem. My definition of strength was.
Grievances, when done well, are acts of honesty. They are about naming impact, not assigning worth. They sound less like an attack and more like an offering. Here is what landed. Here is what stayed with me. Here is why it mattered.
Feats of strength, though, reveal our nervous systems. They show us where we believe safety lives. For a long time, I believed safety lived in winning. In being right. In leaving no room for challenge. If I pinned the moment, I felt steady. Briefly.
These days, strength looks different in my body.
It looks like telling the grievance without sharpening it.
It looks like staying present when I feel misunderstood.
It looks like resisting the urge to wrestle for control.
It looks like choosing integrity over dominance.
So if you are observing Festivus today, here is my invitation.
Air the grievances, cleanly and honestly.
Say the thing you have been carrying without turning it into a weapon.
Let the truth be the truth, not a performance.
Then, when it is time for feats of strength, try this version.
The strength to stay in the room.
The strength to listen without collapsing or attacking.
The strength to walk away with greater honesty, greater integrity, and the relationship still intact.
You can keep the pole.
You can keep the “tradition.”
Just know that the strongest thing you might do this #Festivus is leave more connected than when you arrived. It’s Festivus for the rest of us.
#MoreConnectedHumans
#IKnowFestivusIsNotreal