tomorrow is the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere….dark ….spring seems a long way off…jimmy buffetland is but a dream….and yet, cold bitter charles dickens winter does not really begin in my mind until after the holidays…because it seems we squeak through a good bit of winter with no problem because of so many family activities, gathering with friends etc etc…the "hammer" does not really come down until new years day…at least , this is how it works in my mind…
i am off in half an hour to see my mother and family in colorado…no work….just good cooking, get my laundry done, family games, and keep the fireplace going…relax….try try try to stay away from the computer, cell phone, and all the entrapments of "real life"….escape to home….the best trip of all….my "jetlag" time table is so mixed up now, that it does not make any difference….i can always sleep in my mother’s house…
at some point in the next day or so , i will catch up with all of your comments and respond…the bag/book winners should receive their "stash" before Christmas…everything is to be fedexed out to the "magnificent seven" today….90% of what i am supposed to have done by now is done…there is always always that other 10%!! but, mostly i will try to forget that undone 10%…chill out….pretend all is well all around….
i cannot resist one short question to you before stumbling down the stairs and step into the pre-dawn cold and waiting airport bound taxi with a probably "too early morning grumpy driver" (i am in a good mood, so i will attempt cheerful conversation)…..so, does the holidays season somehow make you depressed because the year is "over", days are short and busy, and you did not quite get everything done ?? or are you uplifted by family gatherings etc. and the chance to "start over" with the new year coming??
hi David,
I love the Christmas season. I love the tradition, eating to much food and watching generally bad TV, indulging and knowing that everyone else is doing the same.
There are always more things to do, so that doesn’t really bother me. For this they can wait. I never feel depressed at this time of year. The short winter days don’t bother me…for the last few weeks in London they have been beautifully bright and clear….not to mention cold…..buts thats perfect for this time of yeah. The five year old part of me wishes that it would snow though. I love snow.
As for new year, for me its just another day……it has never really effected me. When you think about it its just another arbitrary line in the sand. Although I will say that new years seem to be coming around faster and faster these days. But, you what, life is good……how can I complain….I want to carry the momentum that has slowly been gathering in the second half of this year straight into the next one. And I never want it to stop.
Jason.
The winter season is great here in Korea! It’s the end of the school term and it means a six week break!
the only depressing thing in winter in Poland is that there is less light… even at the evening on the streets, in the middle is empty and less light.. people are sitting at home and there is nothing to do…
i wish to be in some more happy place during winter :-) it’s my only wish.. so i go to celebrate new year’s eve to istanbul :-)
I love this time of year! Sort of a time of renewal. Yes, it is arbitrary. But it works for me.
So many different cultures celebrate some form of end of old year, begining of new. End of harvesting, begining of planting. Renewal.
And of course it’s a time to catch up with family and friends.
Have a great trip David. Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all “DAHblog” denizens!
Christmas is fun with kids though it’s not my favourite time of year. Starting over in the New Year is always something I play with though I still start over again in September at the start of the new school year as well.
Jason has it ever snowed in London?
I hope every one has a happy Christmas.
I hate this time of year… depression huge as mont everest… the sky is grey since two weeks (or longer I manage to forget on time )… where is sun?… sombody saw the sun?… friends not helping… alkochol not helipng… photography not hel… ok… photography helping… sometimes… and sex always… for very short time…
I need travel… I need sun… I need emotion… adventures… I need load B&W to my small camera and go somewhere without reason… I need damn sun…
Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all my happy friends and you David……
:)
Martin (positiv vibration)
My daughter is now three years old, so I am finally starting to appreciate that side of Christmas… It seemed I grew out of the spirit of things pretty fast when I was young, but through her eyes, it is all magic again.
As to starting afresh… YES! For me, the New Year is usually a mad rush to clean off the last of the slate and look forward… though it can sometimes be hard to keep that focus, it usually gives me momentum well into March (and through the doldrums of February, at least).
But enough of that… hope you are NOT reading this, getting time to your family and self; Merry Christmas and best of everything in the New Year.
L.
Will,
are you also in Korea?
For me the holiday season is great. I dont see it as an end because I never thought of a year as having an end and a beginning…its too much a man made construct…time flows without stops and starts. But I do have resolutions for next year, only two:
1. Get back to my former running shape before a foot injury sat me out for a long time
2. Create as many stories and essays as possible on as many subjects as I can find.
Only two to make sure I dont get in over my head. Ofcourse these are add ons to real responsibilities that dont need resolutions because they must be done, no options on the table (baby comes first).
Would love to meet up again David when you are in Seoul.
my comments keep getting rejected…
saying they are spam…o bewildered web world….
b
home…where sleep slipt inside like seeds in a softened earth….the only measure and twist…
i too am traveling…to my mom’s, though my home is now only around the earth upon which my wife and son graze…
running, adrift…
bob
Christmas, seen as an iconic season, has always confused me. Where I live is actually spring, and today is very hot. That means that snow, Papa Noel, pine trees, and so on, is kind of ironical here. The second problem is that whe don´t have a long hollyday, except for Christmas day. That means everyone works until December 24. So there is really no time to rest, meditate, or be more time with your family. So sadly this is not a special season for me. It´s just a little break up at best.
Jorge
Weird how a few thousand kilometers changes everything. Tommorow is the longest day of the year for us in Cape Town, South Africa and it seems the sun will shine. The only thing I miss about the winter is the ability to catch a sunrise without having to wake up at 4 in the morn. Anyway, I think any day is a good day to start the rest of your life so I’ll be spending this Festive Season just being thankfull for all the smiles around.
My comments too are getting repeatedly rejected by Type Pad’s spam filter… If it were just me, I’d take it on the chin, but seriously David, if the filter is rejecting Bob Black and other regular contributors, I’d say this blog is in serious technical trouble requiring a fix.
Sidney
I love snow and the Christmas Season. It marks the beginning of winter when I’m all excited about playing in the snow which means, hiking, snowshoeing, winter camping, wood stove burning, sledding with kids and some skiing. It’s all good.
After Christmas is also now my annual (my third year now) fasting. This to me signals a new beginning. It sounds weird but I’m looking forward to it.
This time of the year also doesn’t skip the misery though. Less time to get things done, snow shoveling gets harder every year, on Monday I tried to open the hood of my frozen car to re-fill windshield washer and ripped off the front grill of my POS Chevy Minivan :-) oh what fun it is to frolic in the winter wonderland.
By middle of March it will be: GET ME OUT OF HERE QUICK!
I never understood the depression people felt about Xmas, so often depicted to me when I came to the USA. Xmas may not happen to me (family far away, no Xmas tree in Bangkok, or whatever) as it did when i was a chile, but these memories are so happy, I have always kept the sense of marvel associated to them.
Also, the last 20 years, Xmas and shorter days meant next winter trip starting soon after, in places where I discovered half of myself and left it there, in a way (Sout-East Asia).
Except this year, I may have to shelf travel plans, as a dear old friend of mine may need my presence, due to a the passing away of his lifelong companion.
It appears I’ve joined the ranks of the SPAMMED. Damn it.
Or should that be SPAMMERS?
Anyway, my feelings about this ridiculous season were best captured in a brilliant card I saw once that had a nice illustration on the front showing a little boy standing on the second to last step looking in at Santa placing the gifts about the tree and Santa saying to the boy, “Now that you’ve seen me, I’m going to have to kill you.”
hi harry,
yeah it snowed here last year for a day or so. of course i was out in it. but there really wasn’t that much. it used to so more and regularly when i was a kid, i can remember some winters where are had a foot and a half or so.
generally speaking, i suppose there is something of a renewal at new year, it does provide a fixed point of reference to look back over the past twelve months…….but then, so does a birthday. we do it at the wrong time of year! if we want to be truly traditional it should be in spring, when nature renews itself.
Jason
Filtered out again! I’ll give it a rest and try tomorrow.
Sidney
Hey Rafal.
I guess I’m trekearth Will, but i haven’t posted there for a while. Been following your stuff on photoholik though…some fine stuff appearing!
HAPPY ONE YEAR BLOG ANNIVERSAY
I cannot believe it was just about a year ago that you began work on the blog. I am so impressed with community you have created!
I am working on a way to accept and enjoy the New York winter (from California). I will let you know what I come up with.
christmas makes me happy. i love the happy-go-lucky and merry-making people on the streets. i live in a country (india) which has a small populace of christians. but in my city (calcutta) almost everybody takes part in the festivities of christmas, though i think it is nothing compared to your country. but still, if you are out on the street on the christmas eve in calcutta, you cannot judge where you are! however, for us bengalis (people of the state of west bengal), the family-meeting period is mainly durga puja time (sep-oct). christmas is THE HAPPY HOUR. after the christmas, i really look forward to the new year. i try to forget the failures of the past year and i dream to ‘start over’, as you say. new year brings hope and enthusiasm to do better than the last year. this ‘hope to do better’ is all that live for is most vital for my survival. january 1 serves that purpose.
Neither. The “holiday season” doesn’t affect my mood, unless I’m hearing that horrible “Feliz Navidad” song for the billionth time, or something like it.
But Autumn and Winter, the cold and the night, all that definitely actually energizes me. It’ll be late at night and forty degrees outside, and I’ll have the window open and a thin sweater on, and the chill air coming up against my face and hands will have me getting more work done than I ever do at any time of day during the spring and summer.
The only downside is that it gets too dark to photograph much earlier…
To those of you being filtered out…how is it we are seeing your posts saying you’re being filtered out?
Is it length of post that’s doing it?
If so…edit! ;^}
How long have you been “saving” your laundry for your Mom to do??? :) Nevermind, I don’t really want to hear the answer to that. :))
Nothing like going home to Mom…mine has been deceased for 15 years now. Today would have been her birthday so I am fondly remembering her…and all the laundry done and meals cooked and great advice given.
I am usually glad for the year to be over with in some respects and sad for it to be over in others. It’s always nice to begin a New Year. I hope 2008 is a wonderful year for all of us.
p.s. This blog has been a large part of what was great about 2007. Thanks to all!
All,
Off topic but following up on Michael K’s comment…
Is it more difficult to edit your writing or your photography…or just as hard for both?
I hate snow and cold.
I grew up in Toronto and have lived in Boston for the past 12 years. Something is very wrong with this picture. But being with family is (almost) always uplifting, for a short while at least.
Have a great holiday, David.
Cathy- to answer your question: I find it much more difficult to edit my writing, scientific or otherwise. When I’m looking at my photographs, the good ones just seem to jump out at me, at least the ones that I think are good- maybe I’m a terrible photo editor as well… but at least I’m a happy idiot!
(Testing the length to see if that’s the problem with submissions getting blocked as spam):
David and Everybody,
Speaking of latitude, Bellingham WA is at 49 degrees North which is about the same latitude as Paris, Prague, or Kiev, which means that even when the sky is clear, which it rarely is at this time of year, there are only about 7 and 1/2 hours of daylight as we approach the solstice. Here on the Northwest Coast winters are normally dark, grey, blustery, and wet, and this year (a La Niña pattern) is even darker, wetter, and more blustery than usual. Forgive me, Martin in Poland, suffering because the sky has been grey for ‘two weeks or more’, but it has been grey skies and wind and rain, wind and rain, sometimes a little snow, then more wind and rain, since early October here, and will probably continue that way until May or June (although we sometimes get a nice partly-sunny reprieve of one week to ten days in February). So even the short ‘daylight’ hours are dark and gloomy. I don’t know how people who live even further north– in Alaska, Scotland, Norway, or Finland– put up with it, but they have my sympathy. So naturally you ask, why would anybody live here? The flip side is the glorious, paradise-like summer with clear skies, warm but not hot and never humid endless summer days, and delightful balmy summer evenings that seem to go on forever. And mountains, and forests, and sea, and islands…
Sidney
(That last segment went through OK…???…so maybe this one will too…)
Greetings to Rafal and Will in Korea, one of the other places close to my heart, and be sure and eat lots of ‘ttok’ during the winter season– especially ‘songpyeong’!
In Japan, where I lived for two decades, a traditional name for December is ‘shiwasu’ or the ‘month of the running teacher’ and it was always a busy, exciting, and expectant time. Christmas was not a particularly big holiday, but the New Year festivities in Japan are a truly elaborate and spectacular series of rituals, feasts, pilgrimages, gatherings, gift-giving. Not to mention the ‘year-end cleaning’ which leaves the whole country and every household looking scrubbed and spanking-new. There are raucous ‘forget-the-last-year’ parties and ‘welcome-the-new-year’ parties, shrine visits in the millions, and ‘mochi’-(same as ‘ttok’ in Korea)-pounding parties. Although I was single and living alone for most of that time, with the few family I have on the other side of the world, I never felt lonely or homesick at that time of year. It was always a great spiritual renewal and the time of year when I felt closest to the deep animistic roots of Japanese culture.
Christmas and New Year’s in North America for a single man with no children and no family nearby is another story. Over the years I’ve spent far more Christmases and New Years alone than I have in company or with family, and although I am used to it there is always something very lonely and depressing about this time of year for me. I feel a certain pagan affirmation by surviving through the winter solstice, but its a very low energy, introspective, and somewhat melancholic time for me. I hope that doesn’t spoil the seasonal enjoyment for the rest of you! We deal in light and shadows… and this time of year for me is more shadow than light. But a hidden blessing in this very wet part of the world is that spring comes very early- already there are pussy willows out, and by early January there will be camellias, plum blossoms, and crocuses springing up.
Sidney
I LOVE the holiday season… Even though I didn’t have family get-togethers growing up, I still have great memories watching Christmas shows as a child. Funny when I think about it — little Korean girl sitting there in front of her 13 inch t.v. watching Full House Christmas episodes, cartoons, and A Christmas Story. Somehow I think I’ve really come to see myself as a banana! Yellow on the outside, white on the inside! *grins*
We’re flying out to see my husband’s side of the family and I’m excited to see how my 15 month old son will react around snow for the first time. He already loves to shove sand in his mouth (doesn’t like it so much when it comes out the other end).
I hope everyone has WONDERFUL holiday season!
Best,
Diana
Hi Folks,
Just delurking momentarily… I took a peek at the typepad homepage, and it looks like this overaggressive spam filter is affecting lots of other blogs too. Fixing it is their “top priority” but a little search reveals they’ve been been having this problem for about a month ever since they “enhanced” their service. People are pissed. BTW, you guys, collectively, do awesome work. Looking forward to seeing the results of the contest. Regards, Mike
Sidey,
One person need an hour of sun, the other needs all day of sun, like flower needs rain and light. I’m a person who need sun, and warm. I need it for my work…. for my mind… for my life.
God bless all of peapole who don’t need a lighy and sun to be happy… all of who life in dark part of the eart and life without light make happy…
I don’t care what need others, I need light… forgive me…please…
I just need sun…
Martin (try to be in good mood without sun)
Christmas is a nice break from the norm. Enforced break in routine! The same thing every year, similar rituals, time and space to chill. Plus family photos to update!
Also..here in Northern Ireland…unending cups of tea.
Have good holidays folks!
The holidays are all right, I guess…
There are twelve days of Christmas, and I’m sure if you’ve somehow managed to forget that fact over the course of the year retailers from one end of this our Great Republic to the other will forcibly refresh your memory for the next few weeks. Whether you want to or not, you will hear in great detail about lords leaping and laying ladies while pipers pipe and voyeuristic geese pay five gold rings just to watch. I’ve always wondered why just about every picture of Times Square before its current incarnation as Disney World North had a goose or two in the background. There were just too many of them for this to be some sort of odd ornithological coincidence.
But avian porn is not the subject of this screed, so let us move on before the police arrive. The subject of today’s lecture is the twelve days of Christmas and what they mean to me in five easy lessons. For the better part of the late and deeply unlamented twentieth century it was the fashion among a certain set of people to bemoan the commercialization of Christmas, that the demands of Mammon were stifling the essentially religious nature of the holiday, even to the point where that great philosopher and theologian Linus Van Pelt had to explain to Charlie Brown what Christmas was all about by quoting the Gospel according to Luke. Charlie Brown did not seem impressed by this argument, falling, as it did, between commercials for Benson & Hedges cigarettes and the new 1967 Ford Mustangs. The fact of the matter is that Christmas has always been a commercial bonanza, a state of affairs that began when the Roman Emperor Constantine decided that maybe Christianity wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Constantine came to this conclusion after he’d had a dream the night before the battle of the Milvian Bridge in which he saw a shield emblazoned with a Christian cross bearing the words IN HOC SIGNO VINCES (in this sign you shall conquer).
After the alarm slave went off the next morning, clocks being fairly scarce in those days, Constantine put Christian crosses on his soldiers’ shields; as the enemy army outnumbered his by about four to one, Constantine figured any edge he could get was a good one; and then proceeded to march out and stomp on the competition big time. Having won the crown in a pretty convincing fashion—Constantine didn’t have to dangle Chad over a cliff or anything—the new emperor decided to return the favor God did him and make Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. Once a faith exclusively practiced by the most rejected and despised elements of Roman society, the Christian faith became the most inclusive faith in the Mediterranean world since now everyone and their Uncle Bob had to join, everyone, that is, except Constantine himself. Unlike Marshal Feng, the twentieth century Chinese warlord who converted to Methodism and then decided that his troops needed Jesus as well, speeding the conversion process up by baptizing the assembled soldiery with water sprayed from a fire hose, Constantine chose to exempt himself from the revival, correctly figuring that if he stayed a pagan he could go on doing all the fun stuff that pagans got to do like murdering his political opponents, seizing their property, and selling their families into slavery without this sort of thing bothering his conscience all that much. If he was still a pagan, after all, who could blame him for acting like one?
Our current holiday problem started when Constantine decided that a holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus would be just the thing to make himself look good on The O’Reilly Factor. There was, however, one small problem: no one knew when Jesus was born. The Gospels simply say that the birth occurred when Quirinius was the governor of Syria. This might have been enough information in the hands of a competent archivist to pinpoint a likely date, but competent archivists were hard to find in ancient Rome due to the Roman mob’s insatiable appetite for watching overweight, middle-aged clerical types with the wife, the 2.7 kids, the dog, and a thirty year mortgage on a house in the suburbs try to stab each other to death with quill pens in the Coliseum. Constantine, having no solid information to work with, asked the Senate and the people of Rome what they thought of July 15th as the date for Christmas. The Senate and the people of Rome, mindful of the fact that Constantine had the bad habit of feeding people who disagreed with him to lions and tigers and bears, oh my, for the edification of the people in the cheap seats, told Constantine that July 15th was a wonderful idea. Roman retailers, on the other hand, mindful of losing the 4th of July and Bastille Day sales, told him that while his idea was wonderful, it would be even more wonderful at some other time of the year. One clever gent who owned a shoe store on the Appian Way suggested, after giving the matter some thought, that the Emperor make December 25th the date for his new holiday.
Now it was Constantine’s turn to object. At a meeting of the Imperial Chamber of Commerce, he quite rightly pointed out that December 25th was already a holiday, the feast of Invictus Sol and his brother Herschel, the inventors of the pneumatic chariot wheel, upon which the good fortune of the Roman Empire did not rely in the slightest. Then Constantine had the Pope read the relevant portions of the Gospel of Luke. The Pope stumbled through the text, His Holiness being unused to reading anything longer than an address; he had come to Rome to land a post office job in Gaul and wound up as Pope for lack of any other available employment; and after he finished reading Constantine asked the retailers how they proposed to get around the Gospel’s clearly pointing to a summer date for Christ’s birth. After all, first century Judean shepherds did not keep flocks of sheep out on barren hillsides by night in the middle of winter just on the off chance that a passing heavenly host with some free time on their hands would wander by belting out their rendition of Handel’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ in digitally remastered stereophonic sound. Clearly, December 25th did not meet the high burden of theological and historical proof required for such an august feast day.
Then someone, possibly the shoemaker who first suggested the idea of the 25th, or maybe his twin brother—no one could really tell them apart—told the Emperor something that emperors, as a class, love to hear: he was emperor, therefore he could put the holiday anywhere he felt like putting it. And so he did, on the 25th day of December, the high burden of historical and theological proof bending slightly in deference to Constantine’s sudden need for campaign contributions; not everyone in the Roman Empire thought that Constantine’s being emperor was such a good idea and he needed money fast; armies, then and now, don’t come cheaply. Well, over the centuries more and more days got added to Christmas; travel was slow in those days and most people had to use oxcarts that only got twelve miles to the dry gallon of oats, despite the best efforts of the ruminant companies to meet new government mileage standards. The retailers, however, loved the ever-lengthening Christmas season and did their level best to stretch the season out even more.
Matters came to a head in 800 A.D., when on the first day of Christmas the Pope crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor and Charlemagne discovered that he and his entourage were stuck in Rome until the end of Christmas, which occurred sometime in the middle of April. This was a major source of annoyance for Charlemagne, who wanted to go home for the holidays, and so in his third official act, the first two being an announcement that alternate side of the street parking rules were in effect and the world’s first pooper scooper law, Charlemagne decreed that Christmas would only last for twelve days. Retailers throughout Europe objected, which seems to be a theme here, saying that a twelve day Christmas season would drive them out of business; there wasn’t enough time for the scribes to pump out advertising copy in a twelve day season. Charlemagne said, tough luck, pal, in Latin and French, and doesn’t almost everything sound better in Latin and French, and then left town with the imperial crown in his luggage, as well as a couple of counterfeit Rolexes he’d bought from a Senegalese immigrant who’d set up his blanket in front of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The retailers, of course, did not go down without a fight. They’ve been pushing the seasonal envelope ever since Charlemagne rode Out of Town for a second place finish in the fifth race at the Roman Aqueduct. This explains why today, in our modern postindustrial information society, the official Christmas season begins with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and why we still have an annoying carol about the twelve days of Christmas. The unofficial Christmas season, of course, begins near the end of August. This may be why everyone is so happy when Christmas finally arrives—it means that we won’t hear about the damn day again for at least another eight months, something for which we should all shout, Hallelujah and Happy Holidays to all and to all, a good night!
Dude, Akaky, are you snowed in or what?
I was, but I got over it.
I like the holidays except for one thing. 1st though, I like that things slow down, and people are taking it easy. town empty’s out, and its nice and quiet. so thats all good, but, the problem is that work slows down too and that sucks. I find myself in the same pickle every xmas season. stressing because the dilemma is that, sure I have some doll-hairs but what do I do? save it for next month, when I know I will be scrambling, or treat the season right, and buy buy buy. its a godamn nightmare. I know what I will do of course. that shit is burning a whole in my pocket, and I won’t be happy till its all gone…and then I will be looking around bewildered saying WTF.
I hate the winter, the short days, the cold… my back aches… but I’ve been griping enough about the winter already. So on a more positive note…
2008! Bring it on can’t wait!… looking forward to grabbing it by the ears and shaking it around a bit. I fully intend to push myself hard… and harder. I will be focusing more on doing the work that interests me rather than paying the bills. It is so easy to get caught up in the day to day grind… so much so I was starting forget my I jumped head first into this wonderful game we play…
We’re leaving the States, hitting the road, following our hearts, our guts and our passions… Who know what will happen… Can’t wait!!…
Cathy,
Photography, much harder!
As far as writing goes, it’s weird… but while I consider myself a pretty lousy writer I find editing fairly easy…especially the writing of others.
I’m sure it’s because I’m a better reader than I am a writer.
DAVID and COMPANY! :))
last post for a while as Marina, Dima and I are also off to my mom’s…philly and nyc and some quiet….
so, sending you some pictures from the book of photographs I am making (and must finish by tomorrow) for my wife for christmas…too poor for gifts (little guy know in love with the expensive sport of skiing), so here is a small part of the book about home (us) giving to marina…
yea, lazy ass, still using film….
http://www.lightstalkers.org/happy-holidays-lightstalkers-all-
hugs all
running
bob
Akaky:
YOU F*CKING RULE OLD MAN…im tellin’ u, not Roth, but Markson, that’d be DAVID MARKSON…now, yea, i know who u are ;)))))))))))….
that’s richer than J.K. O’Toole :)))))))))))))
running
b
I usually feel sad because I lost both parents very young so today, celebration is around me in the shape of my wife’s big family but it’s not the same for me….On the other side I feel very happy because I see my kids happy and excited….
But….to be honest…what really depress me is the “locura” (madness) of buying, buyiing and buying around me…that presure of giving things…expensive things to prove I don’t know what… is not fun anymore,,,is an obligation….I simply don’t get it….
Feliz Navidad!…I send hugs to everybody…they last a lot more and they are completely free!
Akaky,
My Man, My Man, My Man!
S.
I love the dark and cold desember, thats an intresting thing about the north, the differnece between winter, spring summer and autumn.
I would thank this blog and wish you all a happy christmas.
Gunnar
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
- Raymond Carver
blessin’s…
@akaky..ur it.
Today is my 30th birthday so I don’t know if I’m uplifted or depressed. I’m now definitely never going to be a formula 1 racing driver, but on the other hand I still have all my own teeth. I love snow and cold though, last winter I was in the tropics and it was all wrong. Happy christmas David, thanks for the blog, A
Every year is different for me. Last year, dealing with a very difficult breakup, I was crazed, depressed, unable to focus, having to “fake” holiday cheer for the sake of family. Friends, however, helped me through.
This year, with a number of fun projects and good prospects for the future, I’m sailing along merrily, but then again I’m not paying much attention to the holidays.
I think a lot of whether you are happy or sad during the holidays depends on the status of your relationships. Something about all that coming together can make you warm and fuzzy if you have great family, great community, a great partner…It can make you crazed if your relationships are strained or fraught with pain and long-standing issues…or, if you are alone in your life, it will make you downright depressed, mainly because there is NOTHING to do on Christmas if you are alone because everybody else is with their family. That’s a lonely feeling…been there…
Like others have said, I think I like the season more than the holiday. The air gets crisp and fresh, and where I live we get the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets around this time of year.
This year may be bittersweet for my family because my grandmother is not well. She is a trooper, though, and may just live forever. At least that’s what I’ve always thought…
Merry Christmas all–don’t forget your cameras–take photos of the people you love:)
David, have fun in CO. Hope you get some good snow.
ALL….
well, it is snowing here now and looks just like you might imagine colorado looking at Christmas…the perfect Christmas card…
i just had morning coffee with my mother and am over at my sister pat’s house to say goodbye to her for a few days…she and her family are traveling up to utah before Christmas..
anyway, i am trying to make another decision….should i or should i not publish the name of the stipend winner and list the photographers who will have featured essays on or before Christmas…if i do that, it will be names only and no pictures..i want the pictures to be large and on the new website which should be up and running by january 1…
let me know what you think…..should i or shoudm’t i “leak” the names this week???
in the meantime, i will drop into your work and do short critiques as much as i can…i have done this with some of you already…
one thing that may surprise many of you, is that the bulk of the uploads are from photogs you do not know…most of our community here is actually invisible…we have a lot of writers, but we have so many photographers who never write…
ok, please give me your opinions…it is always nice to know what is on your mind!!!!
You should at least show a few pictures from whoever wins, it would seem strange to me otherwise.