|
although i grew up with all the hoopla surrounding indoor trees decorated with lights, icicles, popcorn strings, etc., i'm not really keen on putting up a dead tree inside my house. (oh, and dad and i cut and sold trees off our farm for years, so i'm not unaware of the ecological or economical aspects of the holiday season...) when we spent christmas up north, aunt phil and i would go out around thanksgiving time and identify a tree we wanted, then go out around my birthday and cut it, add legs to it, stand it up on the outside deck, and put lights on it. i've always thought that christmas time doesn't need to be advertised more than a couple of weeks in advance.
on new years day, the tree would come down and either be cut up for the woodstove or added to the bonfire pile out back. nothing against our orthodox friends, but three weeks is long enough for us to celebrate anything.
now that we escape the snow in florida, aunt phil puts lights around and through the two palm trees we have in our front yard, usually around my birthday but sometimes earlier. that's the extent of our "christmas tree" tradition now...
__________________
"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
-----------------------------------------
"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
-----------------------------------------
never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.
|