Monday, December 30, 2019

NOTHING IS OVER LIKE CHRISTMAS Jack Blanchard's Column December 30, 2019





NOTHING IS OVER LIKE CHRISTMAS


Nothing is over like Christmas.
Months of anticipation, and then it's gone.
Try to hold on to it and it slides away like this morning's dream.

People who tell us that it's a pagan holiday,
just because it's near the winter solstice,
may not realize what an intrusion that is upon our enjoyment.
We can each bring our own thoughts to the season,
and make it our personal non-pagan celebration.
It's in the spirit of the beholder.

It's hard to work up the spirit here in Florida,
but we give it a shot every year.
Misty decorates a tree,
and puts Christmas stuff all over the place.
We listen to Christmas music with the air conditioning on
and with palm trees lurking in the yard.

Television doesn't help, with reports of all night sales,
talking heads urging us to be good consumers,
stranded travelers sleeping in airports,
and carolers singing "Happy Honda Days".

I toss up futile prayers for snow here in the subtropics,
but this is the time of year
when we just get a cheap imitation of early autumn.
A couple of trees around here get a touch of red,
and I go look at them.

I get sentimental about Christmas,
probably because I had real Christmasy holidays years ago,
with folks who are no longer with us,
and my childish subconscious thinks it will happen again.

I think next year I'll write a letter to Santa,
and ask him for one more snowfall in Buffalo,
where the night is silent, the homes are warm,
and Christmas is strong in the air.

Jack Blanchard




Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan
Home Page: http://www.jackandmisty.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jackandmisty
Billboard Duet of the Year, Grammy and CMA Finalists


© Jack Blanchard, 2019





Monday, December 23, 2019

CHRISTMAS IS A TIME Jack Blanchard's Column December 23, 2019




CHRISTMAS IS A TIME


Christmas is a time of sad happiness.
Bar rooms are lined with the lonely,
clinging to each other... like family.

 
Bartenders are parent images.
Displaced Yankees dream of gently falling snow
that never turns to slush,
and wandering romeos often come home,
at least temporarily.


Telephone wires hum with long distance calls
between people who care about each other more in December,
which is better than not caring at all.


After-shave lotion is unwrapped with oohs and ahs,
toys are getting ready to be broken,
and puppies inhabit stockings.

Trees are always the most beautiful ever
if you just turn the bare side to the wall,
and eggs flow like nog.

Roaring hearths and good fellowship are for the very lucky,
but some will settle for a bag of groceries.


For certain people, this will be the first Christmas,
for others... the last.

"Merry Christmas" will be said in shacks,
castles, prisons, airplanes, battlefronts,
and churches.


No matter what we say is wrong with it,
Christmas is a time when many people are a little nicer...
and that's something.


Jack Blanchard




Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan...

Home Page: http://www.jackandmisty.net