The origins of Smass go back to high school when my friend Mallary and I were always making up bizarre and silly stories, and telling them loudly and impromptu to anyone around us. The very term “Smass”, as I remember it, was a variation of “Some more X-Mass”. Here is the full photo that I cropped a piece of out of to send to people as part of a holiday card:
In college, I kept up the tradition of sending fun things in the mail around the end-of-year holidays, and that morphed into what I explained on my Livejournal in 2003: “Who wants a Smass card/letter from me? It’s more of a creative writing endeavor based on what most prissy housewives send their high school friends that they haven’t seen in years.” Inspired by my dad who after years of receiving such missives wrote one full of outrageous lies, I sent out a letter full of all the fantastic things I absolutely didn’t do.
After finishing college in 2005, my life was about as chaotic as it’s ever been. Thus: “Smass, a warm and cozy time of the year, celebrated by many around the globe, is a good time to share your goodwill and love for your fellow man, no matter how many times he or she rips your heart out and leaves it for the vultures to pick at with vigor as you stand by and watch, holding the bloody, gaping wound in your chest, thinking of how like a country western song all this really is. Smass is also a time of reaching out to strangers and almost-strangers, in the hopes of forging friendships or at least reinforcing the idea that not everyone is an asshole and that great things besides porn can come from the internet.” That year friends got a noir-spy letter/story with this photo:
Des Moines, 2005
In 2006, I moved to California and the request that year read: “If you would like a piece of bizarre goodwill, a non-sequitur of love, a tangible missive from the clear backwaters of my heart come to your mailbox, then please send me your address.” That year’s theme of photos with irons came to a head with this Smass card:
The definition of Smass extended and became more emotional in 2007 when I started teaching: “Traditions shift, and positions drift. Here I am in the Bay, shaving my legs for the first time in the winter in seven years, teaching high school students the wonders of poetry and symbolism and many more things out of the classroom. Making it a personal experience, teaching from my heart every day and setting it up on the table in the blinding morning light. I am learning to see, as Rilke said. However, he went on to say how it would be impossible to write to old friends now as he is not the same person they once knew. Perhaps that is how it is with you and I; I do not know. But I’d like to continue my tradition of sending a piece of something real through the mail to you.”
2009: “Smass is all holidays smashed together. Smass is a season of remembering you have space inside you for some inner quiet. Smass is about having a beer with friends while watching A Christmas Story or Pulp Fiction. Smass is about bowling and eating good food. Smass is having the only family you want around you being around you. Smass is a time to go down to the beach or to the forest and not talk to anyone for a few hours.”
By 2012, after teaching Mythology for four years, I’d grown used to the fact that all traditions are smashed-up versions of older traditions, and thus the “smashed” etymology of my own new tradition becomes the etiology. To be quite honest, I’m not a fan of the word Smass anymore, but now it’s an old tradition, well over half of my life, and I’m not going to change it.
And now, after living in Seattle for several years, I’ve come to emphasize the Sunny part of the greeting more than ever. The sun sets before 4:30 now, so we fortify ourselves with extra lights, vitamin D supplements, and plans to go to the desert.
I’ve heard from so many friends that they like the idea of Smass not just because it’s secular, but also because it’s weird. That no one sends things through the mail much anymore, and that it’s a nice chance to create something. For the last decade or so, I’ve included a Good News Letter wherein I compile everyone’s responses to my question, “What’s been good in your life lately?” These are my true delight.
So hop on over to the sign-up sheet or take a look at what other folks have sent me over the years!
