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December 24, 2007
TT: Give and take
I'm writing these words at nine a.m. on Christmas Eve. Not a creature is stirring, not even Mrs. T, who isn't a morning person, or my mother, who went to bed gratefully last night and with any luck will sleep a little while longer. The sun is shining in Smalltown, U.S.A., something it evidently felt no need to do last week. I showed up on Thursday after a more than usually tedious eleven-hour journey and plunged myself into the complicated routine of taking care of my seventy-eight-year-old mother, who broke her pelvis two months ago. Mrs. T flew out to Smalltown to look after her while I wrapped up my remaining deadlines for 2007, and now I'm here, too, making coffee, running errands, and exuding all the good cheer I have in me.
The sunshine helps, as does the season. Mrs. T put up a Christmas tree in the living room last week, and I opened up the old spinet piano the other day and banged out carols and seasonal songs to the best of my now-limited ability. Still, I feel a bit like Othello right now: my occupation's gone. I'm too preoccupied with looking after my mother to work on my Louis Armstrong biography or do any serious reading, I don't have any pieces due until the second week in January, and the nearest theater is two hours away (though I heard the other day that the Smalltown Little Theater was holding auditions for its spring production of South Pacific).
So yes, I'm at loose ends--but very, very glad to be. What better way is there to spend Christmas, after all, than the way I'm spending this one? I'm with the people I love most, helping to take care of someone who not so long ago took loving care of me. As folks say around here, that's the reason for the season, and a good one, too.
I hear one of my housemates stirring, so I'll see you later. Merry Christmas to all!
Posted December 24, 2007 2:00 PM
