It’s amazing how a holiday can completely change the hue of the world.
It’s just past Thanksgiving now – when neighborhoods are an odd jumble of holiday decor. The lazy people still have Halloween up, the opposite kind of people have houses lit up like …well, Christmas trees, and the procrastinators still haven’t gotten any boxes down from the attic. Who knows, they probably never even got them up there.
I was driving along the other day and passed one of the lazy houses and all I could think was, “Ug, how cold and tacky.” The blood stained fence and webs weren’t cool anymore. They weren’t even spooky; they were just tacky. But that vibe was completely washed away by the next house which was glowing with cheery Christmas lights. Only a few weeks ago -while staring through my leather Orc helmet – I would’ve felt totally different about the cobwebs. But as it is past Thanksgiving, I regard them like a college student regards her high school wardrobe.
It’s like the holidays go backwards: death, old age, and finally birth. Halloween, Thanksgiving (autumn), and Christmas. I love the palpable spirit of Christmas: warm and bright like sipping hot coco by a crackling fire. It puts a warm filter on the world. Then once you get down to the center of it – the real substance of Christmas and how it began – you find that it’s deep, exuberant, and sobering. Ancient prophecies and future hope. It’s a whisper that turns into a roar: joy to the world and peace, good-will to men!
Then Valentine’s Day barges in with it’s pink foil hearts all over Walmart and I just about die inside. Not to seem unromantic but I see those doilies and plush teddy bears and my hot coco just goes cold. The florescent lights feel suddenly more harsh and cold. I recoil as I realize that Christmas is over. Love feels like it was replaced with loveyness and it’s like going from a rich 70% cocoa to cheap milk chocolate. It shocks me every year even though I know it’s coming. I would talk about it more but then I’d have to think about it more and why would I want to do that when it’s December?
Anyway, it’s pretty amazing how a holiday can completely change the hue of the world.