Before Thanksgiving it's too early

by December you're already falling behind...

Hey now—

Hey, hey, having a ball… (Photo by Kyryl Levenets on Unsplash)

I am endlessly surprised by how angry I am to hear Christmas music before Thanksgiving. (Even Charlie Brown in his Thanksgiving Special says “good grief” to Christmas decorations in November.) And then Santa rides in on his Macy’s float and I’m supposed to turn off the Grinch frown that I’ve been wearing since mid-August and embrace the fake snow and chirping glockenspiels. Snap. Like that.

In point of fact, it isn’t just the front loading of Christmas that irks me: I also hate that my kids were pressured with homework in first grade to prepare them for middle school, that movies have trailers that reveal every plot point, and that books get reviewed before they are on sale to the general public. None of this seems to me to be signs of a healthy society.

Living in the moment. Enjoying the current minute. Stopping to feel the irony, sense the ludicrous, giggle at the incongruities. That’s how it ought to be, no?

In putting up my holiday decorations (because, face it, I love pretty lights), I wondered if people who have gazillions of blow-up things in their yards feel the joy of putting them up, or if their joy only comes in the moment of purchase, where they think how silly and funny this oversized elf or that monster reindeer will look in their tiny front lawn. Is there fun in the assembling and blowing up? or is that a chore like assembling an IKEA purchase? and if it is a chore, why on earth are we doing it?

I’ve always loved putting up a tree - it is a moment where I connect with years past. So many ornaments that are meaningful or that were bought or given to measure milestones. I don’t scrapbook and since photographs have gone digital I stopped looking back at old photos. So now my Christmas tree holds my memories. Sometimes after I got married, I started to buy a new ornament once a year—something to commemorate some moment in the year. Hanging that one is always a great pleasure and joy.

WRITING:

So that tiny flash piece that the editors fell over themselves loving? It’s published! Fastest turnaround in the history of publishing. I put the little guy up on Medium, one of their editors saw it and made a comment asking me to submit it to them, they accepted it within 15 minutes, and then their issue closed and POW it is out already! BIRDHOUSE magazine first issue! They like the surreal and short and experimental. You’ll find my piece on page 16! Here’s the link. (If you hate digital copy, here is a print version of the same issue already for sale!) I have never had such a positive and instantaneous response to a piece. It felt…good. They compared me to… oh man, I’ll just copy and paste from the editor’s email. I can’t begin to do this justice:

(On a side note, have you read Kurt Vonnegurt or Samuel Beckett? Your writing style is so similar to them both....reading your piece instantly reminded me of them).

*sic on the spelling and punctuation.

“Sick,” how happy I felt to be compared to anyone famous at all.

PS - also moving ahead with the short story collection. The final order is getting ratified by the powers that be by the end of the month! Looks like pub date could be as early as March 2023!