“And the bells are ringing out for Christmas Day.”
For the quarter of humanity celebrating a holiday in this hemisphere of the globe pointed away from the sun, don’t forget your Vitamin D today. It is hopefully a good and welcome morning to you and yours.
Fairytale of New York is a favorite when it comes to anti-carols. Taking place across several years of a failing relationship, the singers antagonize one another with scathing insults and half reconciliations. They recollect the ephemeral Big City and its draw at the dark of winter. The chorus harkens back to the predilection of the Irish becoming police officers. No wonder a song like this becomes a refrain for a Christmas tune.
Sometimes it’s difficult to find oneself in the city, potentially far from family, on a holiday like Christmas. We’re served regular Victorian and suburban imagery of what Christmas should be. Literally no one lives up to that. Know that you are not alone. There is help if you need something.
And if that something happens to be alternatives to an aggro paramilitary force singing about the Connacht coast, here’s the Man In Black.
Ray Dubicki is a stay-at-home dad and parent-on-call for taking care of general school and neighborhood tasks around Ballard. This lets him see how urbanism works (or doesn’t) during the hours most people are locked in their office. He is an attorney and urbanist by training, with soup-to-nuts planning experience from code enforcement to university development to writing zoning ordinances. He enjoys using PowerPoint, but only because it’s no longer a weekly obligation.