The choice appears to be simple. There are two photographs of living rooms at Christmas. The first has a swathe of presents surrounding, climbing and consuming the Christmas tree. The other has a large group of smiling people. And the question superimposed over them both is: 'Which Christmas Would You Prefer?'
Jay tells me he'd go for the presents – on the presumption that the people who gave them might actually be there, as well.
That's my boy, that's the scamp I know.
Jay went out for a ride on his little tricycle to Waldringfield, today. There was a stillness that even the large Sports Utility Vehicles, rushing to take their drivers to somewhere more important than the place their drivers were currently at, could not disrupt. He pedalled on – watching crows lift from the fields, catching glimpses of a watercolour sun leaching through grey clouds, and smelling the earth – and thought about absence and loss. But he was not down-hearted. Only a few more days and the winter solstice will be upon the land and the year will then fade to a new beginning.
Christmas is an important time for Little Animals. It's when they think of those that haven't made it to this time, those who have returned to the soil, but who are still there in memories.
Perhaps that love he felt for them is what reached out to produce the stillness.
No, he is not down-hearted. Because any friend or family member of Jay's in a group Christmas photograph would appreciate his joke at saying he desired the presents, instead.
Happy Christmas, one and all.
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