Christmas: Lights

After watching many of my writer friends rockstar through NanoWriMo on Facebook, I though it would be a good time to rededicate myself to writing on a schedule. So, in honor of the season: Christmas Things!*


Christmas: Lights
I am a firm believer in the illusion of magic. Making the choice to suspend belief is one of the most delightful things about life. Its essential to theatre, the movies, and most art. Its also can get lumped into the general category of “Things That are Fun to Do.”

Let’s pretend that we are spies as we shop in Wal-mart.

Let’s decide that all the grey tiles are lava and you can’t walk on them.

Let’s act like we are at least ten years younger than our actual age so we can do that above things without being weird adults who should know better.

Its fun. Its silly. Its magical. Christmas lights have some of that magic in them. It’s the twinkle and glitter. The fact that they are so bright and cheery against the cold. The oddity of having orbs of light bedecking your house.

I’ve always viewed Christmas lights with an awe that is similar to stargazing. The stars twinkle and explode forever in time and space as far as you are concerned with your relatively short life. Stars can be explained scientifically. According to physics, we know what they are, what they are made of, how the light travels from them, but everything about a star, a far away star, the stars that we only see as brief pin pricks of light, is not something that we can easily understand. The science behind them could be pure magic, and the lay people would have no recourse. Shooting stars are something from very far away reaching out to us. Stars are by definition, the past looking us in the face. There magic is inherent in their existence.

Christmas lights contain the same magic and not just due to the obvious similarities in appearance. The awe, the wonder, the oohs and ahhs and laughs you get as you gaze at the inflatable Santas and Jesui that are half melted when the blowers go out. All of these things just inherently make you joyful. Dazzle your eyes and amaze you just a bit more than anything else you’ve seen that day.

They are ridiculous and odd and beautiful and (oooh!) shiny and magic.






PS I was wanting to include a song with every post (being as Christmas music brings joy) but my computer’s sound is on the fritz, so I will have to update with songs when I’m on a different compy.

*This might also unabashedly been inspired by 1000 Awesome Things which you should go and read immediately because its, well, AWESOME.