THE CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENTS
By Malcolm CallisterIt’s December, Linda and I have just purchased our new Christmas tree. A white, six-foot artificial tree for our rented Casa, in Mexico. This year we left our faithful fourteen-year-old, green artificial tree at home in Canada there was no room in the new Travel Trailer, that was selected for the Mexican roads and RV parks not Christmas trees. Decorations and the memories collected over fourteen years of traveling go onto the tree. We collected tree decorations as we traveled Europe, Asia, and North America, Mainly by RV. Each year memories filled the air as we decorate the tree.
THE CHRISTMAS TREE
Green trees in the dead of winter was once a pagan ceremony, then the green tree became a symbol of Christ gift of life.
Today in a green-conscious world an artificial pine look-alike, green, white, purple or red is preferable to cutting down real tees for a one, or two, week celebration. But this practice may also give way to change as the wonder material of plastic loses its popularity.
TREASURED ORNAMENTS
Each ornament carefully placed to produce a sense of balance, color, texture, and lighting, our memories placed on an artificial tree. Recollections covering the last fourteen years of life as wandering members of the North American RV community.
A FLASH MOD WORK OF ART
It is in the act of decorating the tree that turns it into a work of art.
Flash Mod Art of the 21 Century, art visible only during the Christmas season. Artistic satisfaction is achieved.
BUT WAS IT TRUE ARTWORK?
Today with cell phones and computers, apps, and emails we do not easily recognize art, and art is dying. This is a loss for the human race.
True art gives the viewer a sense of unique colors, shapes, and textures of handmade creations blended together. Creations that we once called art have been replaced with brand name products, mass produced on machines.
The aroma of sawdust, the texture of unfinished wood, the cat playing with the ball of wool as it is slowly unwinding at the knitter’s feet. A ball of wool that will become a sweater for Christmas. All now replaced, by the fumes of the Amazon.com delivery truck and its mass-produced contents.
Art, to be appreciated is a combination of effort in the past, that gives to joy for the viewer, and hope for the future.
THE FINISHED TREE
Like the great artists of old, we are satisfied with our work.
This Christmas Season, by your tree, stop and remember the past. Take a glass of wine, egg-nog or fruit juice and a piece of cake, tell short stories, your stories of the past and hopes for the future. Use ornaments as a starting point or simply tell from memory, what Christmas means to you and your family.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL.
From Malcolm and Linda, with our two dogs Molly, and Angus, on the first Christmas of our three year Adventure in Mexico by RV.
