It is 11:47 AM on Sunday January 2nd 2022. The temperature is 55 degrees but feels a lot warmer with the bright sun. Stepping outside to put away the Christmas wreath I had a flicker of the feelings and emotions I would have on a summer day at the Grandview pool. The warmth on my skin, a cool breeze, the sounds of children laughing and adults chattering away, perhaps even getting a slice of pizza from the concession stand. The memory lasted only for a moment and I thought how odd a memory like that should appear in the middle of winter as we take down the holiday decorations. Perhaps it is my subconscious reminding me not to be too sad as the holidays come to an end and work resuming tomorrow. Without the end of one season we could not enjoy the delights that come with other seasons.
Nevertheless, it is always sad to put the holiday decorations away. The trifecta of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas is always a wonderful time of year. Like last year COVID has cast a bit of a fog over the euphoria that usually come with these holidays. Or perhaps it is also that increasing age chases away a fair bit of holiday magic which becomes increasingly difficult to summon year after year. No matter where the blame lies the holidays went quickly and facing a return to work is always a little sad.
Taking down the tree is a reminder of the passage of time. Every year we buy an ornament with our family names and the year. This is a tradition we started with the birth of our first child in 2010. This means we have eleven ornaments and counting these ornaments is counting years of our lives. It is quite sobering when confronted with how many there are. It is even more sobering now that relatives and acquaintances are starting to pass away. Time is precious indeed.
Another sad event this year for me is to pass the Christmas tree lots and see trees that were never picked. Their lives were cut short and they didn’t even get to participate in the intended purpose for which they were felled. Instead they just stood there slowly dying, out in the cold. At first there were many customers who looked them over and the rejected them day after day. Soon enough nobody even looked at them anymore and then stopped coming all together.
One day perhaps I’ll write a poem on the death of a tree that never knew Christmas. In some ways it is a metaphor for life. We’re all souls just floating around wherever that is until we are born. Being born is a slow march towards death just like a Christmas tree being cut and put in a bowl of water. Some children get to experience many pleasures in life, just like a tree that is picked, wonderfully decorated and is able to see the joy of children receiving presents under its branches on Christmas morning. Other children are born into terrible circumstances and left behind to a life of ruin just like the tree that still sits in the Christmas tree lot slowly dying. This is a very depressing thought.
Now that I consider the concept of a Christmas tree I am against having a live tree. It should be called a “slowly dying tree” but many people prefer to ignore unpleasant realities. The trees life is cut short, used for someone else’s enjoyment and then thrown out half dead on the hard street, its usefulness having expired. As I grow older I become more against the killing of living things. I saw a comment on Reddit that really struck home in this regard. It was how aliens might perceive Earth and the comment related how Earth must be an absolute horror show to highly advanced beings as every living animate object is somehow trying to eat other living things. Absolute horror indeed to the truly enlightened.
Well, time continues to march on and today is no exception. It is the last day of holiday break and I find it is now 12:20 PM already! I was able to get one post published this morning, we got the decorations put away and now I’m about to publish post number two. Being as it is such a nice day I think I should open up the garage and have a good workout in my gym. My gym is in the garage and is always more pleasant with the garage door open. On the other hand I realize the hours are slipping away so my mind debates back and forth on how to best spend my time. In the end it usually leads to paralysis and I don’t accomplish much of anything.
