Day 9: What Isn’t There

As we take our walk with the dogs at night, we walk by what used to be the holiday house, a house with such amazing decorations and animations that it was a yearly feature on the television news. Ever since we moved here twelve years ago, it has been a yearly tradition to walk over on Thanksgiving night (the first night they were lit) to join the crowds enjoying the yearly spectacle, and looking for what new features the designer had created. Every night during the holiday season, the holiday house was a stopping point while walking the dogs, enjoying the lights and talking with the owners and neighbors. The holiday house became a gathering point through the season, a place to see people that you didn’t see any other time.

But last year there was an additional sign announcing it to be the “finale” since the owners were moving out of state. Last year’s viewings were bitter sweet, as every visit was colored with the knowledge that it was all coming to an end. On January 2, when the house went dark for the last time, it was the last time. Soon there followed the For Sale sign, the garage sale (where Toni bought many of the decorations), and the moving truck. Come November 1 this year, we missed the month-long setup for the great reveal. Now, there’s nothing. The new owners don’t put out any decorations, and the house looks very dark, a darkness that is permanent. As many Christmases as we live here, we will never see that display again.

Most are aware that David Letterman has announced that he will be retiring from The Later Show next year. I’ve watched Letterman from his early days on NBC, and though I am no longer able to stay up to watch, I still enjoy parts of his show online. In a few days, the show will feature Darlene Love singing my favorite secular Christmas song, “Christmas, Baby Please Come Home,” a yearly holiday tradition since 1989. I was watching the first time she sang, and have marveled over the years as the production has grown to include an orchestra, backup singers, a baritone saxophone player who always makes some sort of an entrance, and snow at the end (if you haven’t ever seen this, go to YouTube and search for Darlene Love, Letterman. Go ahead, I’ll wait…pretty spectacular, huh?)

This week Darlene Love announced that this final holiday season of the Letterman Show will be her final performance of the song on late night TV. She will not take this tradition to any other show, including the new Late Show with Stephen Colbert. This will be the last time, and then it will be gone.

This season makes us recognize the many good things that we have, but in the midst of this glowing gratitude, there is a shadow recognition of the things we don’t have any more, the things and people who have gone from our lives that will never return. So let’s enjoy what is there this year (including the last performance of “Christmas, Baby Please Come Home.”) and let’s remember with fondness (and some sadness) the things, the times, the people, who aren’t there.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image: http://abcnewsradioonline.com/storage/music-news-images/M_DarleneLoveRockHall630_050212.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1392160306369

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