Solstice Passed

Originally Posted Sunday, December 22, 2013

I am slipping badly.  Yesterday's solstice went by without my notice.  These things are important to me.  Equal daylight and darkness.  Today we begin to move toward longer days, shorter nights.  My world becomes lighter.  Seasons are wonderful.  I have enjoyed the darkening.  It has made me rest.  I am like a bear in that, going into a winter's sleep, not hibernation but a torpor where the mind begins to rid itself of the toxins built up during restless summer nights.  Each day now will bring a more beautiful light, the sun moving to the north again, the shadows becoming shallower and less lovely.  Light and dark.  It's what we have. 

And so, if you will, imagine a world lit by firelight, a pre-electric world where the only thing that relieved the dark was a candle or lamp.  It is Christmastime as it was, a sacred and religious day.  There are only two types of people, the rich and the poor for really there is very little middle class.  The children are out at dusk after a day's work perhaps walking home toward some watery stew and perhaps some bread.  In the windows there are lamps and candles to celebrate the season.  Nothing elaborate, just tributes.  Even the destitute are moved in an emotional direction.  Perhaps there is hope of something given on Christmas day--and orange or a bone carving or even a pair of shoes.  There is worry, too, among the parents as they try to scrape together these tithings for the family.  There will be a Christmas dinner that is not like the everyday fare.  And best of all, there will be no working.  Ah. . . Christmas. 

In the homes of aristocrats, of course, there is the expected display of wealth with decorations and lamps galore, holiday candles blazing and rooms with decorative trees and wreaths.  There will be a Christmas goose and perhaps oysters from the coast, a suckling pig and exotic fruits imported from the south, sweetbreads and holiday cakes. . . etc.  It is a special time.  Ah. . . Christmas. 

So many of us are aristocrats now, though we have to work endless hours to live so.  And if you are not, you work endless hours, too, three or four jobs, perhaps, to barely pay the bills.  But there are televisions and vast sound systems and lights blazing everywhere.  A kid walking down the street at dusk with his earbuds. . . .

I will surely walk on the Boulevard today to check the pulse of the times.  I am a recorder.  I just want to see and smell the holiday crowds. 

I should make today's picture into a Christmas Card.  Perhaps I will.  I wish she were wearing bunny ears.  I used to love the November and December issues of Playboy when I was young.  There, I thought, was the true essence of the season.