Christmas Time

Written yesterday, while sitting on a stranger's couch amid boisterous laughter and the smell of roasted chicken. ~

Lately, I've felt very disjointed from the "outside" society. ~ What with Organic Chemistry, Historical Inquiries and A Doll's House occupying my mind, the holiday festivities have seemed like a distant dream. ~ When school snares you and keeps you entrapped in her hold, it's hard to get caught up in the holiday experience. ~

So that has gotten me thinking... What is it that really defines the festive quality of the holiday season? ~ Is it the snow-covered, pure-white, snowy winter landscape? ~ The glittery, red-and-green-coloured Christmas decorations strewn on every coverable surface? ~ The candy-cane-loaded, garland-encircled, lit-up Christmas tree? ~ Or should we consider things like the joy of giving and receiving gifts, or of donating money to charity, or of spending time with family and friends? ~

Well, as I sit here on this foreign couch, a brief epiphany relating to this topic strikes me. ~ What really creates and maintains that holiday season feeling is that everyone participates. ~ The shopping malls are all fully-packed with busy, last-minute shoppers struggling to check off everyone on their lists. ~ Bands, choirs and symphonies perform Christmas carols non-stop. ~ Radios food drives are in full-swing, amassing hundreds of thousands of dollars to support those who are less fortunate this cold wintery season. ~ On the last day of classes or of work, everyone says goodbye with a smile and a hug, wishing each other a "Merry Christmas!" and a "Happy New Year!" ~
And admittedly, there will always be that one grumpy Scrooge, complaining about the festivities and good food (Heaven knows why!). ~ But what's most noticeable about even this situation is that they too, are a part of the Christmas experience. ~ Ironically,as a cornerstone of celebrating the holidays, the Scrooges of our world are essential to completing the holiday posse. ~ I'm sure they would be mortified if they thought about it this way, though. ~

So all in all, cliché as though it may seem, it's the humans that make Christmas what it is today. ~ We have constructed a time when everything else is put on hold, where even the busy IB children are caught up in celebrations. ~ And indeed, as my parents enjoy a glass of wine or two, I sit here (not drinking - I'm the designated driver, it seems) and pull out my phone, ready to call a friend and begin my own Christmas experience. ~

The String of Life

Life is a test of resistance. ~ We are all strings, stretched and pulled, loosened and slackened, let out or reeled in. ~ It's this ebb and flow that is the test. ~

We start out as a ball of string, nicely wound and compact. ~ But as life starts, we begin to unroll the string. ~ Like a yarn ball thrown down a flight of stairs, we tumble down, down, down, driven forwards by a compelling force (in this case, gravity). ~

At times, when we have gained too much momentum, we often start to lose self-control, to go all out and release too much string, too fast. ~ Just like a young child playing happily and naively, we let out too much line and end up with a tangled mess. ~

Then, there are times when we become too tightly strung. ~ Living on the bare minimum, our string pulled back as if an archer were pulling on a bow; tension builds up as we resist the urge to let go. ~ But how much can a person stand before he or she snaps? ~ Even the best quality string can't withstand the strength of time. ~

But as we grow up and we learn, we adopt temperance. ~ Like an expert fisherman, we known as if by instinct how much line to let out, how long to wait before we reel in the prize fish. ~ Like a trapeze artist, we find perfect balance on our rope, a precarious peace. ~ Like a seamstress, we know how tight a thread can be pulled before it snaps. ~ "Experience is necessary." ~ In fact, experience might just trump education, because experience itself encompasses not only education, but also throws at us those special cases, exceptions like the numerous ones found in French grammar. ~

So instead of memorizing complicated physics formulae calculating string tension, or studying up on the different types of materials that strings can be made of, or, if you're the type to ramble on like myself, writing poetry or philosophical blog posts about string, just get out there and start truly experiencing your own string of life. ~