We are rapidly approaching the season of insane consumerism, greed and waste. The spirit of Christmas has been lost in a whirlwind of marketing and money-making. And the greatest tragedy is quite possibly the fact that of all the gifts we receive very few if any at all will hold any value for us just a few weeks later. We will be feeling the same emptiness, ordinariness, the shine and promise of the new having vanished as rapidly as it materialised.