I have never had a set date for putting up a tree, or for taking it down.
Usually it goes up shortly after Thanksgiving. Sometimes Thanksgiving night.
Sometimes it doesn't get put up at all.
If ones goes up, it will usually (not always) come down sometime in January.
This one may stay right where it is for the next four years.
This particular sweet little tree has become very important to me.
It has become a recipient of my thoughts, and tears, wishes and prayers.
As most of the country worries about California today, one man, yet again, makes his horrible self conspicuously more horrible by his lack of empathy, common sense and common decency.
He's an idiot.
A monster.
How will we survive for four years?
Sane people will be suffering breakdowns - physical, mental, emotional, economic - individually and collectively.
After reading all I can possibly stomach of his hateful ignorance, I find comfort sitting quietly with only the light shining from our little Christmas tree.
My mind wanders through thoughts of past Christmases. Those spent with friends and family that are no longer here.
And I find myself sharing thoughts about how our world is today.
The tree is little, but mighty - as trees are; even if they're not really "real."
This tree, along with some treasured old ornaments hanging on its branches, now has some of my thoughts hanging there as well. And a secret wish or two.
Along with my thoughts relating to the stupidity he's spouting about
The Gulf of America.
Canada.
Greenland.
The Panama Canal.
You know - crazy shit.
Gramps is cra-cra.
Dangerously so.
Crazy shit flying out of the mouth of a monster who calls himself a leader. Pfffttt.
The only "leading" he's capable of is leading us into one crisis after another while embarrassing us.
By the time he's finished destroying this country I will be bent (not broken) with the heaviness of it all.
I just need to decide whether I can do it without the peace I've received from this sweet little tree. It's going to be a very long, brutal four years.
Is it about time to pack her up for a year's worth of rest?
Or not.
