December 9, 2011
Dear Everyone:
For
many generations, people have brought a tree into their homes and
decorated it for
Christmas.
No
one is really sure when the practice started.
Earliest recorded suggestion dates to around the 1500’s.
But there is no mention in any of
Shakespeare’s plays, so it was
probably not a common practice then.
Some scholars have tried to claim that pre-Christian people honored the
“spirits” in the trees; but it’s really difficult for an
archeologist,
sifting through potsherds, to find evidence that a tree was taken into,
then out of, a site. When I
was a college student, in archeology class, we used to play a game:
Imagine that the home you currently live in was suddenly
deserted, like in Pompeii, with everything intact.
Based on the contents, could you determine the number of occupants and,
if so, how many were men and how many women?
One student thought you could based on the number of hair
brushes. Considering how
many brushes disappeared, and had to be replaced, in our house in
Lake
Oswego, the guess would probably be two to three dozen women, which
would have been a little cramped.
Feel free to play this game at home, anytime.
Last weekend, with “Jeannie’s” inestimable help, I brought home a
pretty, little fir tree, which we set up in the living room corner, next
to the fireplace. When I was
getting ready to move from my old
townhouse to my current
condo, I
“donated” all the “old”
Christmas decorations to charity.
I’m not sure why I thought I would never have another decorated
tree, but that seems to have been the thought process at the time.
Last year, what with me dropping dead in the parking lot and all,
Christmas was rather subdued.
Instead of a “tree”, I got a potted rosemary plant and decorated
it with tiny ornaments and some little glass ducks that looked for all
the world like
University of Oregon
mascots.
I have absolutely no idea where those little ducks are now.
In
any case, I decided that this year Christmas would be a bit more
festive. I found a tree
stand, many new-fangled
LED lights, a “crystal” angel that glows and
changes color and a couple hundred new, mostly unbreakable,
ornaments.
And
something I wish I’d had many, many years ago:
A remote control that lets you turn the lights on and off with,
literally, the touch of a button.
No more crawling behind the tree to plug/pull the extension cord
in the outlet.
Of
course, I still have to crawl under the tree once each day to add water.
And, as long as the little tree continues to soak up a couple
quarts each day, I know it’s still “live” for now.
And
the Good News is that getting down and back up, to water said tree, is
so much easier than it was last year, thanks to my new,
titanium hip.
All
reasons to Rejoice. Joy to
the World and
Happy Holidays!
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |