Anticipation -- good and bad

American culture is built upon anticipation. 

The foundling nation, in its Declaration of Independence, declared that its citizens had the right to the pursuit of happiness. Not happiness itself, but the pursuit of happiness with its implication that happiness will be at the end of pursuit.

The consumerist culture of America, likewise, is built upon this anticipation. Every commercial that sells a product or service hooks the buyer through anticipation. The scenario presented on the screen, the promised emotional experience becomes the commodity anticipated; the item purchased is merely the vehicle.

Christmas, likewise, is sold to Americans through everything from commercials to Hallmark movies. There must be family, of course; a big meal; a big tree with presents underneath; an admonition despite all the focus on accumulation that Christmas is in the heart.

The problem with anticipation is that it often builds into a fantasy against which reality can't measure. The family get-together involves political divisiveness, or such lack of acceptance from parents that it's made unbearable. The person tasked with making the big dinner grows resentful at the lack of appreciation and the pile of dishes. The presents don't provide as much joy as expected. One's heart isn't feeling Christmas.

My Christmas doesn't look like the one being sold on TV. My husband and I travel seven hours to visit my relatives, who do not greet us effusively. We have no children, and we leave our Christmas tree back home. We mingle with people celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah and many other holidays. The lodge we stay at is the only thing that looks like a Hallmark Christmas.

And I anticipate this escape every year, and it doesn't disappoint me. 

Holiday Travel

I didn't write yesterday because I was on the road from the far northwest corner of Missouri to Illinois to visit my family and celebrate Christmas. I'm in town now, typing this at Jeremiah Joe's in Ottawa, IL, watching children misbehave next to the Christmas tree in the big display windows left over from when this space was Famous Department Store. 

I'm getting old. I'm talking in that way older people talk: "I remember when this was Famous Department Store ..." It's inevitable that, when one gets old enough to see things change, that one documents the change aloud. I don't like admitting I'm old; there's still that part of me that thinks younger men should be conducting courtly displays of mischievous intellectualism toward me, but I'm officially past my expiration date for that. 

The white Christmas this year will be only in our dreams, given that highs this week will be in the 40s and there's no precipitation in the forecast. I might be able to take a Christmas hike at Starved Rock State Park. I wonder if that's a thing.

It looks like my dev edit has been delayed till New Years (thank goodness; I wasn't ready for a Christmas present that would make me cry!) No, I know all of what I'm getting for Christmas, unless the universe decides to surprise me with good news about my writing. 

************
Yule was yesterday, Hanukkah starts tonight, Christmas is Wednesday. Good greetings to all of you!

The semester is winding down ...

It's finals week, and after I do some wayward grading, all I have left is the finals, which are multiple choice and computer graded.  And then I will be done with the semester and get some quality time with my brain.

I wonder if I will feel possessed to write a new novel? I said I would back down from noveling because I have five I can release to the querying process. I could query -- I think it's been enough time. I could write short stories or poetry. I can't just sit around and do nothing. 

So my break will be at least partially a writing break. It will also be a research break, a class-tweaking break (most of this is, however, done). A sit and pet kitties break. A big coffee break. A sit at the massive fireplace at Starved Rock with a mug of Irish coffee break. 

I'm looking forward to it.