Beautiful Silvio. My parents also left cookie crumbs on our dining room table and a near empty glass of milk and carrot chunks (for the reindeer). It’s funny half a world and decades away, the intimacy of tradition is so familiar.
“The trouble, they continued, is that people study how to lengthen time when they should focus on how to widen it.”
This was one of Tolkien’s criticisms of the modern world. Everyone obsessed with how to live longer, no one obsessed with how to live deeper. People end up spread thin, like too little butter over too much bread.
Thanks for reading, Tommy. And for always leaving such kind and beautiful words. Yes, those family traditions echo all over space and time, it seems (I have to say I particularly appreciated the carrot chunks in yours :)). This thing about experiencing time in width made me think for weeks lol. But it's true, I think. Time is an emotion, it's not just something that passes.
I love your writing, Silvio. You take me for a quick journey every time. This trip went back to visiting my gramma and grammas house full of great aunts and uncles, cousins, all German immigrants, who celebrated Christmas with gusto. Santa would actually come while we were there. You could hear him arriving on the roof. Stomping around. Then, we would open the parlor doors and the tree would be full with presents. All the kids wildly running around. Then, we would look out the window and catch a glimpse of Santa walking behind the house. He must be going back to his sleigh! Thank you for bringing me back 55 years ago.
I also loved thinking of time in Width. Big chunks of y-axis do lengthen our memory. These are the deep feelings we experience when we return to those places. I have never thought of time on the Ordinate. Maybe when describing time it should be called the Extraordinate! What a wonderful way to spend our precious time. Ciao.
Stan! Thank you for sharing that beautiful memory. These traditions resonate deeply across space and time. And I guess they're still going strong! I like the idea of "time on the Ordinate": it summarizes perfectly that notion of width. Thank you again for being here! Ciao!
In physics it is taught that time is an abstraction created from gravity. And while scientific in nature I do believe there is also something poetic about the gravity of a moment having if not a greater duration of time a larger quantity in depths and widths and you have mentioned.
Another meditation for the ages my friend. May this new year be abundant with blessings for you.
Thank you, Steven. Always glad to see you nail the key point in my pieces. And thank you for the wishes, which I reciprocate with love and enthusiasm to you and your family.
Feels funny reading this well into January (sorry, just catching up), but then again, nostalgia and your writing are timeless. Very enjoyable read, that took to my own early Christmas and thoughts around them.
Also, "The trouble, they continued, is that people study how to lengthen time when they should focus on how to widen it." Perfect, and timeless ending.
Thank you so much, Oscar! Always so good to see you here, and that you liked that line. When I read it myself the first time, I got blown away. So simple, yet so true and precious.
This piece really got to me and made me reflect on my own Christmases with my family. We were a traditionless household, with my dad's rebellious streak encouraging us to open presents even a week beforehand, though when I was young we stopped going for a tree larger than three feet, if we had one at all, solely due to the hassle of needles or storage. It did take some of the fun out of Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, trying to celebrate without a tree and on a different day than everyone else celebrating the same holiday, and then when those days came around the presents had already been opened. I think when we are young we don't appreciate the value that ceremony has to a certain part of our soul, how it provides us with a sense of comfort even though that sense of comfort is difficult to articulate. Ceremony and ritual are so easy to mock, but there's a reason why it is so important in every culture. It strengthens relationships, it strengthens the bond and it gives fond nostalgic memories like this an anchor to attach to, so they're easier to remember and become brighter in memory the more they are called to the fore. I wish our modern society would value having ceremonies and rituals.
Thank you, really, for sharing these memories of yours. They'd make a great piece of writing, I think. And yes, ceremony has value only well after the fact, when you let your memories flow and take the scene. "I think when we are young we don't appreciate the value that ceremony has to a certain part of our soul, how it provides us with a sense of comfort even though that sense of comfort is difficult to articulate." -- I totally agree. Very well put!
You so well captured the mood of those family gatherings as a child. I have much the same kind of memory of it. "I loved being in the midst of that benign chaos." My time is widened every time I read your essays Silvio.
Beautiful Silvio. My parents also left cookie crumbs on our dining room table and a near empty glass of milk and carrot chunks (for the reindeer). It’s funny half a world and decades away, the intimacy of tradition is so familiar.
“The trouble, they continued, is that people study how to lengthen time when they should focus on how to widen it.”
This was one of Tolkien’s criticisms of the modern world. Everyone obsessed with how to live longer, no one obsessed with how to live deeper. People end up spread thin, like too little butter over too much bread.
Thanks for reading, Tommy. And for always leaving such kind and beautiful words. Yes, those family traditions echo all over space and time, it seems (I have to say I particularly appreciated the carrot chunks in yours :)). This thing about experiencing time in width made me think for weeks lol. But it's true, I think. Time is an emotion, it's not just something that passes.
I love your writing, Silvio. You take me for a quick journey every time. This trip went back to visiting my gramma and grammas house full of great aunts and uncles, cousins, all German immigrants, who celebrated Christmas with gusto. Santa would actually come while we were there. You could hear him arriving on the roof. Stomping around. Then, we would open the parlor doors and the tree would be full with presents. All the kids wildly running around. Then, we would look out the window and catch a glimpse of Santa walking behind the house. He must be going back to his sleigh! Thank you for bringing me back 55 years ago.
I also loved thinking of time in Width. Big chunks of y-axis do lengthen our memory. These are the deep feelings we experience when we return to those places. I have never thought of time on the Ordinate. Maybe when describing time it should be called the Extraordinate! What a wonderful way to spend our precious time. Ciao.
Stan! Thank you for sharing that beautiful memory. These traditions resonate deeply across space and time. And I guess they're still going strong! I like the idea of "time on the Ordinate": it summarizes perfectly that notion of width. Thank you again for being here! Ciao!
"i miss what the future looked like back then" what a great line and wonderful essay Silvio!
Thank you so much, Arman!
In physics it is taught that time is an abstraction created from gravity. And while scientific in nature I do believe there is also something poetic about the gravity of a moment having if not a greater duration of time a larger quantity in depths and widths and you have mentioned.
Another meditation for the ages my friend. May this new year be abundant with blessings for you.
Thank you, Steven. Always glad to see you nail the key point in my pieces. And thank you for the wishes, which I reciprocate with love and enthusiasm to you and your family.
Feels funny reading this well into January (sorry, just catching up), but then again, nostalgia and your writing are timeless. Very enjoyable read, that took to my own early Christmas and thoughts around them.
Also, "The trouble, they continued, is that people study how to lengthen time when they should focus on how to widen it." Perfect, and timeless ending.
Thank you so much, Oscar! Always so good to see you here, and that you liked that line. When I read it myself the first time, I got blown away. So simple, yet so true and precious.
This piece really got to me and made me reflect on my own Christmases with my family. We were a traditionless household, with my dad's rebellious streak encouraging us to open presents even a week beforehand, though when I was young we stopped going for a tree larger than three feet, if we had one at all, solely due to the hassle of needles or storage. It did take some of the fun out of Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, trying to celebrate without a tree and on a different day than everyone else celebrating the same holiday, and then when those days came around the presents had already been opened. I think when we are young we don't appreciate the value that ceremony has to a certain part of our soul, how it provides us with a sense of comfort even though that sense of comfort is difficult to articulate. Ceremony and ritual are so easy to mock, but there's a reason why it is so important in every culture. It strengthens relationships, it strengthens the bond and it gives fond nostalgic memories like this an anchor to attach to, so they're easier to remember and become brighter in memory the more they are called to the fore. I wish our modern society would value having ceremonies and rituals.
Thank you, really, for sharing these memories of yours. They'd make a great piece of writing, I think. And yes, ceremony has value only well after the fact, when you let your memories flow and take the scene. "I think when we are young we don't appreciate the value that ceremony has to a certain part of our soul, how it provides us with a sense of comfort even though that sense of comfort is difficult to articulate." -- I totally agree. Very well put!
XMAS nostalgia activated. I got goosebumps two-thirds of the way through, too.
Thank you, Michael. So glad you liked it! :)
You so well captured the mood of those family gatherings as a child. I have much the same kind of memory of it. "I loved being in the midst of that benign chaos." My time is widened every time I read your essays Silvio.
And mine is widened every time I see (and reflect upon) a comment of yours, Rick. Thank you, really, for your words.
...cheers to the widest timeline...
Indeed! Thank you, CansaFis!