Registration for The Little Black Book Project closed on November 30th. We have 142 participants in this year's project taking on 40 different themes! But even if we had a single theme and 142 interpretations not one book would look like another and that is what makes the project so fantastic.
I'll let you in on a secret. My theme is 'Do you remember.....' and given the time of year it is I started thinking about Christmas past. As soon as any of our days slip into yesterday they become steeped in nostalgia; a lovely sepia tinted brew that softens the focus and smooths out the rough edges. It seems especially true of Christmas. What I remember about my childhood Christmases is easily summed up. I believed. I believed in magic and that Santa Claus was real, that his elves were watching and that anything was possible. Why is it that what was so simple a thing to do then has become so complicated now? Back then I didn't think 'how do I believe?'. I just did. But now? Well now I need a five year old to teach me how.
It seems I'm not alone. Somehow the question 'what do you want for Christmas?' has become enough to trigger an existential crisis. Ask any child what they want for Christmas and they're bound to give you a laundry list of toys and games and next to impossible dreams. But ask most adults what they want and they will tell you that they don't know, that they have everything they need. If this is true shouldn't Christmas be less complicated instead of more so? If we have everything we need, why are we still wanting?
In all of those corny Christmas classics that we watch every year there are nuggets of truth. They allow us to go back, to remember what it was that made us believe. Believing makes it real, whatever 'it' is.
To quote a line from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store....maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."
On that note I wish you all the happiest of holidays and hope that all of your impossible dreams come true.
