"Joy to the world" is a phrase that is commonly sung in the Christmas carol of the same title.  Around the holidays, one would only need to simply say this phrase or partially sing in order to either get others to sing along or press the repeat button on the "radio" in people's heads and having them thinking about it for the rest of the day.  But what does this phrase truly imply?  Oftentimes, it is shown by itself with pictures such as my first one I chose.  All around the world, everyone stops what they are doing because it is the holiday season and are happy and merry. Father America puts off the war with uncle Afghanistan, Grandpa Economy graciously gives us some spending money to get a gift for our sister, Debt, and of course Aunt and Uncle PoW did not make it because of some unforeseen consequences, yet again.  Guess who's getting coal under their tree this year!

        All joking aside, this phrase and the implications of it are ones that are somewhat silly in the sense that things do not magically get better because it is the holiday season in the nations and countries that do celebrate during this period of time.  International affairs stay the same no matter the season; in-fact, the possibility of the relationships between particular nations might even have the possibility of getting worse because one of the nation's representatives might be at a Christmas luncheon with the rest of his or her department while the representative on the other end is left tapping their fingers on the table, waiting to hear from the other with regards to some important issue that was left as a voice-mail when the two just missed each other last time.  Of course, though, this could be completely off base with how things are actually done, I'm not really too hip on the government's handling of international affairs.

        But I digress,  the phrase "Joy to the World" is one that is somewhat similar to the phrase "Peace on Earth" in that they both imply that things magically get better at a certain time of year.  Of course, the intention is often on good terms but it does feel quite odd saying it and trying to mean it when in the back of my mind I think of all the terrible things that are happening worldwide.

-Matthew S.

Word Count: 400