Christmas. ’Tis the season, so they say. Many folks begin their celebrations by killing a beautiful five- to 10-year-old tree and propping up the corpse in their living room to watch it shrivel and dry. Oh, what fun, and fa la la la. Macabre? Indeed.
“What a beautiful tree,” friends say. “Yep, I cut it myself,” you reply. Or perhaps you just hired someone else to kill it by buying one already dead.
More than 85 million trees, along with the unconscionable waste of land, energy, and manpower, are killed for Christmas decoration each year, only to be discarded a few weeks later.
The real spirit of Christmas is nurturing and new life. A living tree embodies this spirit and brings pleasure not for just a few days, but for years to come.
• Anyone truly believing in Christmas would be repulsed at the thought of killing a tree to “celebrate.”
• A very merry, living Christmas to all.
• (Apologies to those who find the word “Christmas” offensive. Just substitute “holiday,” “winter break,” or whatever else is currently correct.)
August Salemi
Atascadero
This article appears in Dec 18-25, 2008.