Sunday, January 08, 2006

Requiem for the Holidays

the holidays reign no longer. all the excuses that enable us to defer the particular aggravations of our lives dissolve in the harsh light of necessity. i am working on computer problems that should have been solved long ago, but they still linger as impediments to creativity and productivity. now i plunge into the solutions with maniacal energy and precision...

it is sad to witness the demise of the holidays, as they provide a haven for celebration and remembrance, an envelope that serves to connect us in comfortable and challenging ways. the holidays render an avenue for exchanging feelings or replicas of mutual acknowledgment where we briefly restore the filaments of the past, a time machine linking the years so we may resume relationships that flourish for a moment and then disappear until some other celebratory occasion awakens new opportunities to elaborate pretense. but the holidays are the most universal recognition of the life cycle and the struggle between light and darkness...

our interactions are not really pretense. we genuinely are inspired by the magical atmosphere of the holidays. we feel the renewal of ties with friends and family profoundly and resolve to continue them, but we know that we cannot... time and distance, the orbit of the earth around the sun, and the entropy of reality, work against sustaining these connections anywhere but within the confines of our inner reality and lingering emotions... as the holidays fade into the urgent demands of avoiding the dissolution of the world...

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