The ukulele: more fun than working. Photograph: Paul Edmondson/Getty Images.
Christmas is traditionally a time when we remember those less fortunate than ourselves, and it is with this charitable spirit that myself and other members of the Idler Salvation Army are planning to stand outside London's Liverpool Street station this Friday lunchtime, December 15, giving out copies of the Idler to the exhausted, overworked, oppressed toilers of the City. We hope in the long term to turn the deluded throng away from the empty promises of the Gospel of Work, but in the short term we can at least provide some entertainment and spiritual sustenance. Think of the giveaway as alms for the mind, good food for poor, starving souls. If there are any other idlers out there who would like to help our selfless mission to bring hope where there is darkness and joy where there is gloom, then please join the Great Idler Giveaway at 1pm outside Liverpool Street station.
Later on that day I am giving the Idler Christmas Lecture at the Duke of Uke ukulele emporium, 22 Hanbury Street, E1. This is a fine shop and a happy one, and is the perfect venue for my talk, which is entitled The Importance of Being Merry: Freedom and the Meaning of Christmas. At my lecture you will discover the truly subversive nature of the mince pie and why the medieval church approved of hard partying. We will also sing carols to uke accompaniment.
There will be free mince pies and mulled wine, ukuleles on sale and of course copies of my book, How To Be Free, a merry manifesto. Entrance to the lecture is free and the event starts at 6pm. As Marsilius Ficinus wrote: "Live merrily, oh my friends, free from cares, perplexity, anguish, grief of mind, live merrily." Merry Christmas.
