It’s the most
wonderful time of the year! Time to deck
the pumpkins, trim the scarecrow and carve the tree! Wait, what? The other morning on TV they were announcing how we were only 90 days away from Christmas. Costco has already begun selling trees and décor. Cracker Barrel looks like Santa’s workshop with
carols playing non-stop and Santa’s Enchanted Forest is scheduled to open on
October 29th.
Perhaps, it is selective
or false memory but I don’t remember it being this way when I was a kid. Halloween came in October, Thanksgiving in November,
and Christmas season began the day after Thanksgiving. Every holiday had its day in the sun….in its
own time. Beyond the inevitable confusion,
I can’t help but think that this clustering of holidays only serves to produce
anxiety, unrealistic expectations, and a perfect opportunity to not live in the
present.
True to our current
selves, we can’t wait to experience the next BIG thing, so much so, that we are
not experiencing the moment at hand. It’s like the
people who record the entire concert on their IPhone. You know they will never go back and watch
that video but rather than enjoy the current, actual view from their $1200
front-row seats, they’re opting to view the whole concert through an 8” screen. We want to experience the very best of
everything simultaneously in a constantly climactic, multi-orgasmic, 24/7
high. We want to carve the pumpkin while
singing Christmas carols and eating our turkey dinner with Halloween candy
stuffing, swallowing it all down with an eggnog Slurpee (in a big gulp).
They joy of the
holidays is that each one comes but once a year. Halloween is supposed to kick-off the festivities
of the holiday season. Thanksgiving is supposed to make us focus on the family,
center on our loved ones and truly “give thanks.” Christmas, the Super bowl of holidays, to say
nothing of its religious significance to those of faith, is supposed to be the
one holiday that enters your heart. It has
the power to end long held quarrels and makes us all believe in a little bit of
magic. Is there any feeling in the world
better than the one we experience on Christmas morning regardless of our age?
The problem in wanting
to “bottle” this feeling and enjoy it before its time is that it loses its
charm, its mystique, and its intrinsic qualities. Corner brownies and end pieces of lasagna are
the best because there are only a few of them.
They are scarce and getting one is special, a treat. If you ate corner brownies all the time they wouldn’t
mean anything to you. It may sound oversimplified but it truly is that simple.
As I near Forty, I’ve
come to realize that some of life’s greatest joys are things that you must wait
for. You must wait to graduate high
school, wait for your first “real” job, wait for your soulmate, and wait to own
your first home. Equally, it is
unbelievable how quickly time goes while we are waiting. I swear, I was 13 just
yesterday standing in my mother’s kitchen begging her to buy me those Z Cavaricci
pants. For me, I am content to
wait. I will put my Halloween
decorations up tomorrow and will buy my tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. What now may seem like endless waiting is
actually a blip on the radar of life. So,
we may now be 85 days away from Christmas but I refuse to count. Instead, tomorrow will just be Thursday and I will be thankful simply for that.
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