Someone argues that it is immoral and even sinful to feel the New Year’s mood at such an alarming time, at such a difficult time. And the truth is, the situation is not easy in many ways. But let’s deal with this maxim.
It should be remembered that no one in the world will feel better from the fact that you feel bad. We will not solve any problem after we drag ourselves into a noble aspiration. We just multiply them. I suggest doing what we are used to at this time of year.
I met an old friend on the MCC platform the other day purely by chance. It’s a kind of sign of that old world we all miss: I met a friend, it’s good already. He told me that the human brain is so arranged that it begins to self-destruct when it cannot at least form a perspective for itself. And the anticipation for the next year was by no means built. And if you say “Happy New Year” is still normal, here is “With new happiness!” – That’s kind of silly. With what new happiness?
What comes of this? From this it follows that the perspective must be built for itself, cut out the worst, and choose from the rest what keeps our consciousness connected to what is familiar and pleasant. Will it be a new year? Of course it will. That’s fine, it’s perspective anyway. That is why a person makes sense, because in every situation he tries to preserve the familiar reality around him. How to make it for the New Year? The pre-Christmas bustle and post-Christmas fading are the basis of existence.
I need to buy a tree. I bought. And do you know? I have a feeling this is the best event of the past year. That is why from early childhood I was dissatisfied with the Christmas tree. This is everything!
For the Christmas tree you need to go to a hypermarket, for this you have to stop in New Year’s traffic and look at all these flickering lights, coupled with traffic lights and garlands decorated garbage trucks.
The tree must be selected. And this is not easy. Because in our childhood – thirty years ago – there was only one Christmas tree in the whole country. In the sense that it is of the same species and more or less the same for everyone. For nostalgic reasons, I almost bought one, you know, it had skinny branches and rare needles. But no, my parents convinced me to buy a huge and fluffy spruce. Huge! The three of us had to pick it up from among other no doubt less beautiful Christmas trees and load it into the car somehow. In fact, the spruce occupied the entire car, the rest had to go home by subway.
This spruce barely got into the entrance, not to mention the elevator. He supported the ceiling in the apartment, the upper part had to be cut a little.
For such a spruce, of course, it was necessary to buy a new stand and new toys. And three more wreaths. Therefore, everything must match. And is it really possible to decorate such a fir tree with leftovers from last year? Although old toys are removed from the mezzanine. And yes, there was a bullfinch, a paper astronaut, a glass flower, and a ballerina. Everyone who was at home hung all this for half a day, arguing about what was beautiful and what was not worth eating, wrapped a wreath around a tree, sent me for new extension cords. A hill was placed on top of it. For some reason we always had spades on the Christmas trees and we never had any stars. And now it all became one, lit up and smelled of pine needles. And it immediately became somehow easier, calmer. To be well, to heal. And that’s the best thing people can do for the world – to feel better.
There was a feeling that the whole world stood and will stand on this spruce, it will not go anywhere, it will not perish, it will not fail. And then you start to notice that there are Christmas trees in the windows of the house across from everyone and the garlands are shining too. And he makes peace with everything. Because there is some kind of inevitability in the world – something bad will definitely come. But we will do something good in return. We’ll decorate the Christmas tree, wrap presents for everyone, and yes, we’ll definitely cut the Olivier basin. And to prepare the body for the holiday, as recommended by doctors, we will take two tablespoons of mayonnaise per day. The last one is of course a joke. But everything else is correct.
There is so much grief in the world and we all feel it. But when the New Year trees are shining in the world, there is hope in the world, and therefore there is hope. It’s better to lie on the couch and watch those movies than to ruin yourself with meaningless experiences.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.