With Christmas 2013 arriving at a precipitous pace, I am reflecting again on how all these beautiful pine trees will be cut in short order, tied by a restraining rope, and shipped unceremoniously hundreds or even thousands of miles to millions of homes. For a brief stolen moment, they will be warm, perhaps even sweating under the intense lights and heat of the holidays. But is this an end of life they were really meant for?
Our Christian tradition brings us many feelings of comfort at Christmas, in great part supported by the Christmas tree and its green and perennial symbolism. In my view however, there is also a dirty side to cutting the Christmas tree: it will die after a very brief length of its purported life. Is this really what nature intended? I am always amazed after the winter holidays to see the many dried up Christmas trees littering my neighborhood’s street. They lie there sometimes for several weeks until they are collected and discarded. The image below attempts to convey this sense of lost purpose.
I hope that you, dear reader, will agree and find creative and great ways to express the joy of Christmas, for example nicely shown here.
The smiling gecko 