Wow, you have cut to the heart of it all. I grow more reflective every year of the strange hope and impending cessation of Christmas. As you allude to, I wonder how that hope is like an escape from the mundane for so many. It adds meaning, an organizing goal upon which we all agree to look forward to and prepare for with diligence. Yet, then it melts away, and the illusion of meaning and connection dissipates in the dawn of a new year. We must learn to root our hope in something greater and deeper than a holiday, though the holiday of Christmas does indeed point to that very hope. Now that I have kids I think often about how I am one step closer to being an older generation, a past generation, a memory, a ripple in the great ocean of human history and culture. It is a good perspective.
I mean, that’s fair and what happens when I leave comments before I finish marveling at my cup of coffee (which would be just as offended being called tea 😉) extend my apologies to the Powerade
Question why you would let your PowerAde get only half drunk. In this festive season, half-measures are unavailing. You should allow your PowerAde to get blasted.
What magnificent closing paragraphs Taylor! A great piece, one of your very best - which is saying a lot.
I live in a house built in 1790 and yours thoughts about your home fully resonated.
I also went with my daughter to see the outstanding Casper David Friedrich exhibit this year at the Met. I have the catalog, which I’ll show you if / when you and Riley visit.
Your return home is inspiring great writing, Taylor. Wishing you and Riley a blessed first Christmas in your home, and a cracker (in the Australian sense) of a New Year in 2026!
We would love to come visit and see those, Chris. He happens to be my favorite painter (probably too obvious but I know embarrassingly little about painters). Thanks for the kind words and Merry Christmas!
CDF is considered the exemplar of “the sublime”, which is a summary review of this piece. I suspect you realize how perfectly the theme fits with Advent. The ending of one world, the gift of the next, but also the return to which the season also reminds.
All that said, so glad it served as muse but my paternal side urges that the half drunk purple plastic concoction stays half drunk, and that you memorialize its wonder by never, ever, drinking another - or any other liquid with a day-glo complexion.
Remarkable essay. As much as your writing has resonated in the past, it feels like you've hit a new depth of feeling with this one. Maybe there's something in there air...
For me you just opened up some new ways of discovering where I am, how where you are plays such a large role in who you’re becoming. It brushes together an abstract painting I ‘hope’ the people after me can see as some form of our time here now, something resonating worth looking at. Thank you, and merry Christmas.
This touches on something I've talked about a lot with friends but only indirectly mentioned here, so it's cool that you picked up on that thread. Great comment, thank you, Merry Christmas.
I seriously doubt people from the past would admire our world today; our architecture and art is objectively ugly. Roger Scruton argues this well. I look at most modernist buildings built around 1970 and I can’t find them beautiful. Almost all communist buildings are terrible. A bottle of Purple Powerade Zero would be perhaps fascinating at first for someone born around 1800, but merely because it’s novel, not because it’s beautiful... My point has little to do with old vs. new but the principles and values behind creating something; the distinction between the sacred vs. the profane.
This is something I fully agree with. I see it as tangential to the point I wanted to make here, but also could see the argument that it weakens my point.
Wow, you have cut to the heart of it all. I grow more reflective every year of the strange hope and impending cessation of Christmas. As you allude to, I wonder how that hope is like an escape from the mundane for so many. It adds meaning, an organizing goal upon which we all agree to look forward to and prepare for with diligence. Yet, then it melts away, and the illusion of meaning and connection dissipates in the dawn of a new year. We must learn to root our hope in something greater and deeper than a holiday, though the holiday of Christmas does indeed point to that very hope. Now that I have kids I think often about how I am one step closer to being an older generation, a past generation, a memory, a ripple in the great ocean of human history and culture. It is a good perspective.
I love the Gatorade bottle in the pic, hidden just enough that we work to find it. Beautiful
Jen, it's a Powerade and we're very sensitive about that in our household (jk)
I mean, that’s fair and what happens when I leave comments before I finish marveling at my cup of coffee (which would be just as offended being called tea 😉) extend my apologies to the Powerade
Question why you would let your PowerAde get only half drunk. In this festive season, half-measures are unavailing. You should allow your PowerAde to get blasted.
My Powerade fell off the wagon when this came out.
What magnificent closing paragraphs Taylor! A great piece, one of your very best - which is saying a lot.
I live in a house built in 1790 and yours thoughts about your home fully resonated.
I also went with my daughter to see the outstanding Casper David Friedrich exhibit this year at the Met. I have the catalog, which I’ll show you if / when you and Riley visit.
Your return home is inspiring great writing, Taylor. Wishing you and Riley a blessed first Christmas in your home, and a cracker (in the Australian sense) of a New Year in 2026!
We would love to come visit and see those, Chris. He happens to be my favorite painter (probably too obvious but I know embarrassingly little about painters). Thanks for the kind words and Merry Christmas!
You are always an instant click when anything comes through! Wow wow wow.
Appreciate that very much!
CDF is considered the exemplar of “the sublime”, which is a summary review of this piece. I suspect you realize how perfectly the theme fits with Advent. The ending of one world, the gift of the next, but also the return to which the season also reminds.
All that said, so glad it served as muse but my paternal side urges that the half drunk purple plastic concoction stays half drunk, and that you memorialize its wonder by never, ever, drinking another - or any other liquid with a day-glo complexion.
Haha I can't help it, Clark. Despite being the sort of person you wouldn't guess it about, I love gas station crap.
I know. It’s the context I think. Road trips and gas stations lead to bad fuel. Irresistible.
Remarkable essay. As much as your writing has resonated in the past, it feels like you've hit a new depth of feeling with this one. Maybe there's something in there air...
Thanks, man. I have reworked pretty much the entire way I write. Appreciate the kind words.
Beautiful writing; thank you, it really resonated.
Glad to hear that :)
For me you just opened up some new ways of discovering where I am, how where you are plays such a large role in who you’re becoming. It brushes together an abstract painting I ‘hope’ the people after me can see as some form of our time here now, something resonating worth looking at. Thank you, and merry Christmas.
This touches on something I've talked about a lot with friends but only indirectly mentioned here, so it's cool that you picked up on that thread. Great comment, thank you, Merry Christmas.
I seriously doubt people from the past would admire our world today; our architecture and art is objectively ugly. Roger Scruton argues this well. I look at most modernist buildings built around 1970 and I can’t find them beautiful. Almost all communist buildings are terrible. A bottle of Purple Powerade Zero would be perhaps fascinating at first for someone born around 1800, but merely because it’s novel, not because it’s beautiful... My point has little to do with old vs. new but the principles and values behind creating something; the distinction between the sacred vs. the profane.
This is something I fully agree with. I see it as tangential to the point I wanted to make here, but also could see the argument that it weakens my point.
This article comes at the perfect time. How do you manage to see beauty in everything, tho? Genius!
Love this, Taylor. Merry Christmas
Really good. Slowly sipping a second time.