The silliest thing I have heard in quite some time is the uproar over whether to say "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas."

Really, don't we have better things to do? For the people that have taken this way too far, aren't there some hungry people in their area that might need feeding?

A lot of perspective from a little story

A story from a few summers back gives us a nice model for how to approach the holidays.

A very nice elderly couple from England live across the street from us. Their son lives here in Tallahassee and owns a very nice restaurant, and so they decided to retire here.

Their first summer here found us celebrating Independence Day with a few families at our house. After cooking out, we all piled into cars and vans to ride down to the lake to watch the fire works.

My wife Lauren, being the social creature she is, asked John and Anne to ride with us as we were leaving. They joined us, and as we were driving off, Anne cracked all of us up with her understated British humor when she said:

"We will be happy to come and watch the fireworks with you, but we won't be celebrating."

Would that all of us can look upon each other's holidays with the same level of fellowship, class and acceptance.

Jeff Herring

Jeff is a marriage and family therapist, singles and relationship coach, mentor coach, speaker, syndicated relationship columnist and author.

Jeff has a full time private practice in Tallahassee in which he specializes in couples, teen and parent counseling. He also is a relationship coach specializing in working with couples and singles. Some of his professional activities include:

==> Internationally syndicated relationship columnist through Knight-Ridder/Tribune Media Services, with a weekly readership of over 10 million worldwide

==> Sought after speaker for organizations, associations, churches, and corporations

==>Twice weekly appearances on The Steve and Sara Show on Magic 107.1

==> Author of "Keep the Changes: 52 Tools for Successful Living" a collection of his best columns, as well as several e-books including "How to Create a Passionate and Loving Relationship.........Forever," "How to Beat the BOZOs: Dealing with difficult people without becoming one," and "Tame Your Teen: THE survival guide for parenting your teenager.

==> Founder and CEO of TheArticleGuy.com

==> Founder and CEO of SecretsofGreatRelationships.com

==> Founder and CEO of ParentingYourTeeanger.com

==> Founder and CEO of ToolsforSuccessfulLiving.com

==> President of BuildingYourIdealPractice.com

==> President of ConsciousDatingTallahassee.com