Andy and I were watching the end of ‘The Grinch Who Stole Christmas’ when he remarked that in his childhood, the cartoon seemed to go on forever – a brief treatise on the shifting perspective of time, something that has touched this blog of late, and something that comes into play more and more the older we get. I understood exactly what he was talking about – those cartoons did seem to last for hours, with Christmas cookie breaks and bathroom runs and changing into cozy pajamas during the voluminous commercial breaks. Watching these specials was an event.
Now, we turn on one of these Christmas shows and it’s done in at the blink of an eye, before I can pop all the blood pressure meds and allergy pills that constitute the nightly ritual. Andy and I feel the rush of time, in the loss of loved ones, in the loss of traditions that once felt unbreakable. Time, as I’ve often said, is the great equalizer. In the end, it will always win, and it will take every last one of us.
As Andy and I navigate this next section of our lives, and the holiday seasons evolve and change, we take the Christmas specials as they come. When ‘A Christmas Story’ and ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’ run as 24/7 marathons, we let them play, nestle into our places in the family room, and indulge in what feels like forever again.
