De-ornamenting a Christmas Tree has always been kind of a sad rite, and this year it seemed somehow a more deeply sad and symbolic act than before. The Christmas Tree, after all, represents home, family, and prosperity - all things that the future holds unusually pointed questions for. So to see the thing that we all gathered around not two weeks ago, genuinely happy and laughing while it glowed bright over a mound of gifts, lying dry and denuded on the curb, well.
Simony, the visiting girlfriend of our tenant Chris (which I guess makes her a tenant, too) says that she finds our area beautiful, and she's glad, since she loves to walk and enjoys the scenery. I told her that January is actually the bleakest month for Rockland - the driest of the winter months, with little or no snow to make the landscape glisten under the moon. And of course spring, summer and fall are still luminous things around here. But there are still two weeks plus of January to get through, while the land lies dead and still, and now all of the genuine cheer of the Christmas decorations are gone as well.
Of course, she should have said right back to me, "No, it's not about weather. You're getting it confused with an uncertain future in an uncertain world." And it's true. Curious - we're none of us farmers, those that I call friends - but somehow I believe in my heart that the entire world will be born again with the spring, and I think you do, too.
D.
4 comments:
Try the peppermint-schnapps-in-hot-cocoa thing, bake something, and wrap yourself in fleece blankets (and a snuggly spouse). One of the few bright spots about a bleak winter is that it encourages the pursuit of warmth.
I think part of the reason for the glumness is that I've given up sweets for the month of January, with the exception of honey in my daily cup of tea. I'm sure my body is just confused, having to suddenly readjust from its normal daily intake of 17 brownies.
D.
From Wikipedia's article on Christmas trees:
"Ancient Persians, during their celebration of the winter solstice (the birth of the sun god) used to decorate an evergreen tree called SARVE. The SARVE or "Rocket Juniper" - also known as the cypress tree, being straight, upright and resistant to the cold weather, was known as a symbol of enduring hardship, thus appropriate for celebrating Mithra. The younger ones had their "wishes" symbolically wrapped in colorful silk cloth and hung them on the tree along with lots of offerings for Mithra in the hopes that he would answer their prayers."
Symbols aren't universal - if they were, I doubt the Hindus would be so cavalier in using the swastika these days.
D.
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