There’s a truism that time seems to speed up the older one gets. When you’re a kid sitting in history class, an hour lasts a lifetime. Then one day you are all growed up and the seasons start reeling by like the spinner on Wheel Of Fortune. Ain’t it the truth!
For me there is the jump from spring to fall, where summer seems like a brief relaxing weekend. You scratch your head at the falling leaves and chilly winds and wonder where you misplaced those lazy, hazy days of summer. (One of the reasons, actually, that I stayed in Texas after moving here from robust New England - summer is the longest season in Texas).
Then there is the holiday acceleration. The last day of summer may be Sept. 21, but it feels official when Halloween arives. But suddenly it’s a jumble of pumpkins, turkeys, various baked and whipped tubers (they make some strange yam concoctions around here), plastic santas on front lawns (and a few token menorahs), New Year’s parties, and then BAM! - it’s the middle of January and we’re left with a queasy empty feeling until Valentine’s Day (a problematic holiday in its own right).
How many of you get that same feeling of time accelerating between Oct. 31 and Jan. 1 ?
On the one hand, the flurry of holidays one after another can make life more entertaining, brighten that ashy ember of community spirit in our cynical breast. The parties, the shared joie de vivre, the excuse to eat and drink…
On the other hand, the brittle pillars of late-industrial capitalism are shored up by the frenzy of holiday shopping. The mainstream news becomes a weird mix of feel-good humanitarian stories (turkeys airlifted to the troops!), and tidings of great economic joy (X-Box sales are through the roof!). To make the most of the brief holiday economic window, stores unfurl Halloween schlock in September, Thanksgiving decorations on Nov. 1, and huge plastic Jolly Old St. Nicks in the middle of it all. They hammer home the message: Buy! Buy NOW! This has been going on since the end of WWII, but it has been honed to a fine marketing art over the decades.
Possibly he only way to slow down the holiday season, and really enjoy each holiday to the fullest, is to turn off all televisions, avoid all stores, billboards, newspapers and glossy magazines, and just hang out with loved ones. But who can do that? Maybe survivalists and polygamists, hunkered down in their compounds. But for the rest of us, the big Wheel Of Holidays keeps spinning round and round.
Happy Hallogivingmas!
PK