effigy

yellow and blue makes green

My family has this tradition, see. We don’t "believe in" Easter baskets and pagan bunny fests, so we do spring baskets on the first day of spring and just celebrate the Resurrection on [Easter] and let the bunnies observe their own traditions. ...

So my dad and Luke come down Saturday to pick up the piano, and they bring me my spring basket, right? Right. But my spring basket this year has lost a bit of its luster. That is, it's all shiny and smooth and chock full of delectable rabbit-worship candy and all that jazz…but this year it’s minus the basket. No basket, no fake grass, no plastic eggs with surprises. This spring, I’ll turn 28.
And this spring, I got my spring basket in a zip-lock bag.

Now understand (especially Mom, if you read this), that I will always love my mom and chocolate. I have had them both for as long as I can remember, and I laughed and swore to keep both of them even after my heart condition was diagnosed. I am committed to them, and my love for them is unconditional. Externals are, in the big scope of things, merely externals, after all. A zip-lock bag is merely the shell. The vehicle. The venue. The clay jar holding the precious ointment. The worn chest holding the treasure. I know this. I understand that looks aren’t everything. Appearances deceive, and so on. I'm well aware.

However, there is something about the observance of holidays (the holiday of March 21st, in this case) that just smacks of economic principles and the end of Peter's Neverland. Every year, I get fewer and fewer utils of satisfaction out of presents and traditions and general holiday hubbub. I enjoy Christmas less every year. I understand that I've outgrown pajamas with the built-in feet. I understand that someone threw away J's Weebles and my Wizard of Oz puzzle (as though our progeny surely wouldn't care to see our antique toys). I understand that things change. I understand that the magic begins to do a disappearing act.

But I'm concerned at change’s velocity and voracity. I’ve been doing the trending and predicting. Last year it was a spring basket. This year, a spring zip-lock bag. What does that mean for next year? A spring napkin? WHAT, I ask you?

Posted by joydriven at March 22, 2004 10:22 PM | TrackBack