Have you ever noticed how status quo fights against change? Like a stubborn, naughty gnome, Status Quo stamps his tiny feet demanding NO change.

I’ve often encountered these annoying little creatures, but recently they have persistently appeared in three areas of my life: the junk mail stack, the bathroom scale, and family Christmas traditions.

If you have ever tried to eliminate the junk mail pile that magically forms on your counter like mold on an excavation from the back of the refrigerator, you’ll understand what I mean. The Status Quo Gnome is bound and determined there should be no empty counter space. And if you do manage to banish that pile from one place, it materializes elsewhere as a veritable leaning tower of junk mail.

Then there’s the bathroom scale. Just about the time I think I’ve mastered my new eating lifestyle, and the numbers on my scaled have begun to descend respectably and consistently, the Status Quo Gnome (also known in diet circles as the Set Point Elf) wakes up from his nap. I now find myself on the opposite side of a seesaw from this little rascal. For every .2 pound I manage to shed, that little tormentor tacks on .4 of a pound, in retribution for my trying to make a change.

Especially perplexing at this time of years is the Status Quo Gnome of Christmas traditions past. This wee character is apparently also a politician, coercing others to lobby on his behalf.

This year, I decided to pare down and change up our normal Christmas traditions. Suddenly, real and (perhaps) imagined voices pop up saying, “What? You’re not putting Santa on the mantle?” “Oh, but you’ve got to put up lights on the house, or it won’t be Christmas,” and “How can you even think of not baking homemade Christmas cookies?” (I’m pretty sure this last comment was made by the Set Point Elf disguising his voice as a family member).

I think I just figured out a way to get even! Ha! For all those times I don’t get around to something…for example, the Christmas tree stayed up until Valentine’s Day, or the dishes sat in the sink overnight, or I skipped grocery shopping for two weeks, I can simply say, “The Gnome made me NOT do it!”

Published in the December 16 issue of Beyond the Nest’s free weekly newsletter of Arts, Culture and Recreation.