Music of the mind: The life and times of Christmas past, present, and future.. A holiday rambling rant
Music is life.. life is music.. We are all dancing and singing to something. We are all ending a song.. or beginning it. To those who wished me a Merry Christmas and to those who didn’t.. Merry Christmas back to you. It has been a strange year.. getting older, my wife losing her mom this year.. having a new son.. Aging as new life enters. I hate life sometimes but love it. What a year.. whirlwind of activity.. and time flying by.Wasn’t Charlie Brown just in in the beginning of December? Wasn’t it just Thanksgiving? Wasn’t it just Halloween!? Where is it going!!!!??
For some reason I have two fond memories clear in my mind tonight.. one is walking under a moonlight Christmas Eve night with my nephew Shawn —when he was about 5 and I was about …oh a teenager.. and another when I got JURASSIC PARK in VHS for Christmas and stayed up late with my father to watch it—knowing he would tell me how it was possible that science could bring back dinosaurs and waiting anxiously for him to tell me.. I think I watched it only for him to explain the fun science of it all.. then I listened to Art Bell with him into the wee hours of the night.
These two memories, along with many others of miracles and snow and rain and gifts and dinners and mom and dad and family and friends… all traveling ferociously in my mind right now.
What is this whole thing about life? What is it that makes it go by so fast?
The fact we have so much to do?
I vividly remember having the flu on Christmas, along with my sister, years ago. The same year I got a cop hat and Tonka truck.
I remember glorious nights of cold weather…seeing breath in the air.. amazing nights of snow falling at midnight.. warm nights of rain ruining Santa’s sleigh ride..
This year my wife and I celebrated new life .. we also grieved death. It’s been a year to remember, and forget. All at once.
I remember a few years ago—many years now—-proposing marriage to my wife at Martin’s in Hazleton, PA… She accepted, to my joy..
We had a wedding and played Slade as we entered the reception hall…
And isn’t that what life is really all about? Highs and lows.. glory and tears.. sadness and laughter. Whirlwinds of time..
Pope Benedict tonight during his Christmas Eve mass lamented material possessions. Last I checked he was still wearing his Prada shoes and large hat. But nonetheless, he’s right.
I don’t remember gifts, really. I remember the times.. the joy of my grandmother’s old house in Centralia, PA, on Christmas Eve.. with the whole family there. And all those Christmases gone and up until tonight, again with the whole family there.
I am humbled by how fast life goes by. I’m not going to be here forever. No one is. I just want to be here as long as I can to see my son Ayden grow up… and have his own memories of Christmases past and present..
The whirlwind of time…….
Merry Christmas.