Sunday, January 2, 2022. Driving back to North Truro from Provincetown I noticed the very dour, and dreary array of once bright and brilliant Christmas lights and decorations; seemingly cursed to a nasty ending, as the “Tis The Season” has abruptly come to closure. (I remember growing up in Pittsburgh, as January poked its grey-haired head and almost instantly insisted that anything Christmas be over and done because there should never be joy when the calendar clicks onto real winter.) I almost felt sad for the deflated Santa’s, the once sprout reindeer, rendered flat and splattered. Strings of one precisely placed lights hanging low, and out of precision, almost begging to be removed already, seemed to mingle with the mangled branches of proud evergreens, now, almost too embarrassed to be known as Christmas trees! No more Sirius XM, Holiday Music channels, instead, playing the Top 100 tunes of 2021, and on other stations the Top 100 of years gone by. It seems we have moved beyond, the Peace On Earth Days to, the days of BACK TO BUSINESS AS USUAL…AND oh yeah, and WHY NOT!
I have tried to find the good from the meticulous monotony of the bad. I have looked for the glow of promise seemingly dulled by the mirk of the miserable. I have even ignored the ignorance of the idiots enticed by the machinations of the evil; thinking, COME ON, time moves on can’t we as HUMANS do the same!
BUT: 34% of Americans say violence against government is sometimes justified, new poll finds. Cheney: Trump sat in the White House watching Capitol attack on TV. GOP Senator, Marco Rubio, calls Omicron surge 'irrational hysteria.’ “We’re seeing a surge in patients again, unprecedented in this pandemic," said Dr. James Phillips, chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University Hospital. "What's coming for the rest of the country could be very serious. And they need to be prepared." Three people are dead and four more injured after a shooting at a Mississippi New Year's Eve party. Watch out for 2022 — Trump isn't finished just yet. (CNN)
Christmas decorations, sometimes placed on homes and stores as early as the day after Halloween. Boxes of Christmas heirlooms tediously opened and placed on mantles, tables. Strings of lights of green, red, white, eagerly purchased with brand new bulbs, or meticulously unwrapped from Christmas’s past, ready to showcase a celebration. Nothing new about all of this, and honestly even as a Jewish person, lots of delight in witnessing it. But then the fervor and frenzy, fascination, and freshness evaporate, and, all that glittered is now yesterday's news, making way for today’s facts!
