The human mind is designed to focus on negatives rather than the positives around it. The ‘black spot on a white paper’ experiment concludes that everyone invariably notices that one tiny black speck and not the big white expanse of paper it is painted on! This tendency is possibly a survival mechanism, so that we spot the danger first and fast,and immediately react in order to protect ourselves from it.

But festivals are a time of good cheer and joy, of hope and happiness, and thus what better occasion than Christmas to curb this tendency for a few brief moments, park it in a by-lane and allow it to be towed away till we require it once again in less sanguine times.