December 24, 2009
Paths and windows
Finding out. And in.
Everyone has their own reaction to the end of the year. Inescapable holidays. Unstoppable chronology. Opportunities gained, and others lost. Family, friends, loneliness, or just peaceful solitude taken at home, while the rest of society swirls in a mad dash of annual tradition. I start and stop with Thanksgiving; beyond that, no other holiday captures my time or heart. I count myself among many who view Christmas with a cynic’s raised eyebrow (I’d say jaundiced eye, but mine remain brown and my besotted liver still functions remarkably well, thank you very… hic!… much). Some people truly adore their families and anticipate the yearly holiday gatherings with delight. For others, the odd discomfort of being artificially thrown into a food-infused petri dish with people simply due to a shared a strand or two of DNA, speaks only to the absurdity of social expectations.
While I have little emotion for what December represents, I do love January. I love the new year. I have a birthday soon after. I love getting older, racking up more experience, filling my life with more emotions and people and musical discoveries and mistakes and joys. It’s all real and it’s all vibrant and passionate. Each New Year’s is my time to hope and envision and dream and plan. And and and. There is always more that tugs and invites.
I hate tax time because I resent having to look backward. Even in a year that’s gone reasonably well, my gaze turns to flaws and errors and misjudgments and disappointments. You’d think the start of another year would create the same uneasiness in me, but instead, it’s always been filled with light and happy anticipation. I guess I’m blessed with either good brain chemistry, or the daftness of being the local village idiot. Either way, it’s rather pleasant.
I see this time of year as a series of paths and windows. Directional choices made and yet to be determined, and views to external and interior landscapes defined by my heart and its frailties. This is what has meaning to me. To the rest of the commercialized, media-driven fakery, the President and CEO of Notes From the Kelp, Inc. says: Bah! Humblog!
elizabeth said,
December 24, 2009 @ 2:56 pm
ha true.. DNA does not assume kindred spirits does it! Media/retail kill Christmas for me..
Have a beautiful day today all your own Alex.
Lane Savant said,
December 24, 2009 @ 10:26 pm
Boy, you nailed it. Yours are the first uplifting words I’ve heard in a long time.
Except for what’s left of my family on the 25th, it’s an eleven month year as far as I’m concerned.
I usually feel like it’s the far corner and I can’t wait to get to the straight and floor it.
Good luck, keep on aligning those crotchets and quavers, and all that polyphony.
Deborah Hagerty said,
December 25, 2009 @ 9:56 am
Caught me off guard with this. So much beauty from someone with such an unpleasant past. Before this post I would have guessed that you came from a strong background with lovely connections. I maybe see through my own filters. Someone who loved me was pointing out the secrets of the apples still hanging on the tree, the peace of fences with patterns, and music in the waves dancing over stones. You seem to see beauty with blinkers. Not so bad. Press forward then.
Barry said,
December 25, 2009 @ 9:08 pm
Thanks for the terrific balance to the foo foo, Alex. I’m having a great Christmas, but some of the last minute running was too much or too little depending on giver or receiver.
For someone who gives so much to so many throughout the year revel in the self preservation of isolation and reflection.
Oh and paddle a kayak around your little bay! Merry Christmas, er, happy humbug!
PS. May I use the last paragraph of your post, so well crafted, spun by a deft hand, it may well be my best discovery to pass along between now and the first of the year?
Alex Shapiro said,
December 26, 2009 @ 4:45 pm
Hi all,
Yes, Barry, feel free to quote me… I think that the vast majority of people see the disconnect that the holidays represent, between what should be beautiful about them, and what, too often, is far from that! We’re not alone in this view.
Despite my Grinchness, I do hope everyone has been having a good holiday. We’ve spend the past three days visiting with many friends and it’s been quite lovely– good people, in very beautiful homes scattered across this floating rock.
Steve Griffin said,
December 29, 2009 @ 9:50 am
Sail quickly on then into the new year where the days, like the sea, are always unknown, ever churning and changing. Happy birthday in advance, too.