When I was in college, shortly after I declared philosophy as my major, I came home for winter break. At Christmas, I was talking to my uncle. I told him I was a philosophy major, and his reaction was, “That’s the tree in the forest thing, right?” I chuckled and said yes. The funny thing…
I bought a house around eleven years ago. It was that crazy winter in Connecticut where we were getting about a foot of snow twice a week (at least that’s what it felt like). I knew there was a big tree in the front yard when I bought it, but the mounds of snow somehow…
2020 is a weird year. We put up our Christmas tree tonight, Wednesday night. We did it after my daughter finished her homework. But we couldn’t take too long, since she has to be up for school tomorrow and had to get to bed. Normally, we would have done it on a Sunday afternoon. We…
Of all the grown-up things I have to do, I think my least favorite is taking down the Christmas tree in the beginning of January. There are two main reasons for this. The first is obvious, it is the absolute, no kidding, real end of the holiday season. The second is the stress. I know…
Charles Dickens wrote a piece called “A Christmas Tree” as a magazine article. In it, he describes a gathering of people admiring a Christmas tree. Then he goes on to describe all the memories that get triggered by the sight. He remembers childhood toys, food, and ghost stories among other things. Until this year, the…
