Perhaps it’s the southern California weather that makes this season seem so short, so quickly over. When it’s 80 degrees in mid October I feel all mixed up inside. I went surfing two weeks ago without a wetsuit, bizarre.
This season runs with a quickened pace. I’m picking up speed and the pressure is building on my chest already. I feel like the holidays that anchor the last 3 months of the year don’t actually exist with roughly 30 days between them. It feels like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are back to back to back, and come the new year all I will feel like I got was a periscope view of the season; not even enough time to surface, catch some fresh air.
Why is this so? Is it the weather? The commercialization? The media bombardment? Is it some unrest in my own soul? Have I invested too much in these upcoming holidays? Am I missing the point?
Certainly the weather does affect me. And the media, well, I’m used to it by now. When has my soul ever been at rest? I probably have too much invested in these holidays; I’ve mis-experienced the point. Oh, and the election season certainly is helping…
I saw a show last year around this time, Fuerzabruta, is the second installment of the same creators that brought us De La Guarda a few years back. There is this scene in Fuerzabruta where a man is walking on a giant conveyor belt; just walking. Then he begins weaving himself through crowds of people that pass him on the [street]. And then the conveyor belt starts picking up speed until the man is in a flat out sprint, and you find yourself empathizing with him, begging for the conveyor belt god to “slow that thing down! He just can’t run anymore!”. And then out of nowhere these giant walls come flying down and the man breaks through them and debris goes flying everywhere, all over the audience. In his white suit he represents a kind of “everyman” and you think to think to yourself, we are with you; I am that man on the conveyor belt.
I thought of that today as I was going through my motions, work, running errands, etc…
Sometimes I am running full speed with my head down, blasting through walls, spraying debris everywhere. It doesn’t matter who’s speeding up the conveyor belt, it could be me, it could be God, it could be the season, it could global warming, anything – The point is I’m missing something in this head-down-sprint I’m on. Below, 2 clips from that scene in Fuerzabruta, the man breaks through one last wall… and then, rest.
As I suggested with the illustration above, don’t let the periscope view be your only experience. The air is stale in this submarine, the glass is foggy and unclear in this contraption of bent steel and mirrors; I’m crying out, “give me the real thing!”
This season is supposed to be a gift, a refreshment, a reminder, a pause, a reflection, a relationship, a renewal. Don’t wake up on New Years Day and wonder what you’ve been doing the past 3 months…
Did you notice the clouds today?
and I liked the way this looked too:
p.s. If you ever get a chance to see Fuerzabruta or De La Guarda, do not hesitate for one minute. It will change your life.
