It must be green ... it must not have a carbon footprint ... the season shouldn't be so obsessive. On and on went the advice this past weekend, on the blogs, in the newsprint and of course endlessly on the cable channels. It was as though all other news had simply evaporated and all focus was spent on the shopping extravaganza that will occur - or not- in the next four weeks. Hmmmmm.... Pakistan "elections," car bombings in India, cyclone victims in Bangladesh - oh, and then the perennial Darfur stories, global warming, our friends the Saudi Arabians who continue to send abroad their children....
All too much to consider when it is time to string the lights, send the holiday invitations, plan the special menus and pile up the gifts. What a strange season, as the light dwindles ever so fast with each passing day. We can wail about the excesses and the madness, but we might as well be solitarily yelling out at the thunderous ocean surf.
Many years ago I forced myself to find the positive aspects of this season. I was so tired of fighting the obvious and unchanging. Actually, finding some brightness turned out to be quite easy - the season is about celebrating the return of the light. Up until the 20th or so of December, we hunker down with the thin and short daylight. We review the year past in this weakened light - we obsess and misbehave with our diets, and then the day comes when it will not get any darker: the light returns. Well, what a joyous and grand gift!
And I love to shop - not with the crowds, but quietly and in unexpected places. I marvel at all the clever devices that are employed this season, whether it is mock sales, special and sensuous lighting displays, or just extremely vulgar displays of excess. It is all such an over-the-top depiction of the American idiom - "the business of America is business."
Yet there are other aspects that are unique to the season. I actually do crafts at this time of the year. My friends remain intrigued and amused with this personality "quirk" (?). If, in the cold and thin light, you focus on your seemingly monochromatic garden, you will find that buds are fattening and the early bulbs are pushing their green tips above the crisp and crusty frozen soil. And finally, the last of the fall leaves have been swept up.
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