![]() The origins of the “holiday season” are the changing light and dark in the North Hemisphere, when the long nights begin to give rise to more sunlight and the intimation of a new beginning. ![]() Once upon a time it was Advent, not post New Year, which was for fasting and reflection today our pre-Christmas weeks are for shopping, office parties, and intra-family gift-giving negotiations. Traditionally “Christmastide” was from Christmas Eve to Epiphany on January 6, the days following the winter solstice. From A Charlie Brown Christmas to It’s a Wonderful Life to The Apartment, dark occasions are broken by a shaft of light coming only at the very end. Henry’s Gift of the Magi involve grappling with poverty and deprivation. It is no accident that the two best-known modern tales of the holiday season, Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and O. This is reflected in traditional holiday literature and in our holiday movies. It is a time of unusual joy that it is often emotionally wrenching. This is also when loneliness hurts far more than usual. The weeks previous to the New Year were, of course, our annual “holiday season” where there is much excess, much connectedness and personal and family complexity. This freshness allows us to take another look at our problems, failings, and insecurities. Although it was bitterly cold outside, there was a feeling freshness within the context of the rhythm of the world and our lives. I thought how fine it was that the days were becoming longer. ![]() The bridge gives a magnificent view of the western horizon, and I was struck by the bit of dark purple color visible in the distance. Last night, on my way home from the office on the first working day of 2013, I was driving over the Pell Bridge from Newport, RI. ![]()
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