I saw the light
Music:
"Something/Anything?" – Tod Rundgren
"Body Acoustic" - Michiel Borstlap
Mood:
"I saw the light"
In wintertime, especially around Christmas, you see many houses and gardens decorated with illuminations. Some are really gorgeous, some are very colourful, some are rather subtle and simple. I personally like simple, small, miniature lights (those very tiny ones, how are they called in English?).
I saw this one tonight in my neighbourhood. “Love” - a very suitable message for Christmas.
Christmas message
"Something/Anything?" – Tod Rundgren
"Body Acoustic" - Michiel Borstlap
Mood:
"I saw the light"
In wintertime, especially around Christmas, you see many houses and gardens decorated with illuminations. Some are really gorgeous, some are very colourful, some are rather subtle and simple. I personally like simple, small, miniature lights (those very tiny ones, how are they called in English?).
I saw this one tonight in my neighbourhood. “Love” - a very suitable message for Christmas.
Christmas message
posted by Kym. @ 12/17/2004 01:18:00 AM
10 Comments:
At December 17, 2004 at 6:44:00 AM GMT+1,
Victor said…
Simple but well said! Is "Love" the same in English as in Dutch?
Interesting you should write about the "illuminations" - my wife and I have been walking our neighborhood at night recently looking at all the displays. There are displays of Christianity (the religious aspect), displays of Santa (the spirit of giving aspect), and displays that are more about nature (i.e. snow and reindeer). But "Love" is something we can all agree on!
At December 17, 2004 at 10:28:00 AM GMT+1,
Borya said…
I agree with you all. But somehow the use of the word "love" has become to blatant for me. I like it more subtle. I prefer putting a simple candle in the window instead the all-justifying "love". And to give love, I prefer e.g. going to an old-age-asylum to spend some hours with elderly people. Which I do. But I don't talk about "doing it" in my town. This is not only about stating.
At December 18, 2004 at 5:43:00 AM GMT+1,
Kym. said…
I find this Christmas lighting a very “subtle” message. It says only “Love”. The interpretation of it is up to you. Visiting elderly people is one of the concrete ways to show your (feelings of) love. For me, the word “love” is never blatant. I would not have enough of it. “Love” is in your heart. The word “love” makes me feel good, think of good things, even if it is not specific, not directly addressed to me. Love is for me – caring, sharing, respecting, unconditional, not being selfish, wishing the best, universal, timeless, fearless, even to die for (but never to kill for!), so precious, joyful, everlasting, warm… - hey, folks, feel free to add more - … and/but hard to find, have and keep… Lighting a simple candle in the window (which I often do through the whole year) is one thing, letting the word “love” shine is another way to show what you feel. Besides, it has more impact, catches more attention to light the word now, because it’s Christmas and people are more sensible to it, I think.
So, here is my wishful message: Let there be love, peace and happiness in everybody’s heart and soul.
Kym.
At December 18, 2004 at 11:55:00 AM GMT+1,
Borya said…
This is what I call blatant. And I even do think that most people in fact are far from feeling and more, giving love to others. So all this is as far as my impression goes nothing more than an advertisement on TV, untrue, mendacious. "Love" has become the moral club that beats all but remains completely unconcrete. What's behind the facade, behind the window? Better not digging because you won't find love there in most cases.
At December 18, 2004 at 9:36:00 PM GMT+1,
Kym. said…
Note: In my comment above, I mean “sensitive” by the word “sensible”. Darn, I mix up these two words often.
Borya,
You call this blatant, and that’s fine with me. I would not stop wishing love and the best to everyone. Is (wishing) love nothing more than an ad on TV? I don’t watch TV, but if commercials can move people to feel love, I have no problems with that. What’s behind the façade? There is a drama of life, I suppose, happy or not so happy, with or without love. If it’s an unhappy drama without love, I couldn’t help wishing them (or him/her) to find love and happiness in their way. I don’t mind if you call this blatant, call me naïve, or even call me hypocritical. I wish you all the more love and peace in yourself.
Kym.
At December 18, 2004 at 11:43:00 PM GMT+1,
Borya said…
It doesn't make me feel comfortable telling somebody that I wish him "love". In case I wish, I don't say something like this, I do what's in my means to "give". But saying this I consider comical, staying at the surface. It's like when all the world first asks "how are you" and when you say "not so good", the atmosphere gets down, the conversation dies because most people don't want to hear it. But you can't make this a subject all the time, so you simply answer "fine" and go on. This is what I mean with the use of the word "love". It's not upright, it's not meant most of the time, it's like the Hugo Boss sweater one wears.
A farolito makes me feel romantic, to watch somebody invite a homeless to have dinner makes me have respect and to see somebody put such a lightning in the window makes me laugh in first place. I'm not saying that this particular person is hypocrite because I don't know him/her. But such a thing I can't take serious standing on its own.
At December 19, 2004 at 6:29:00 AM GMT+1,
Kym. said…
Like I said, that’s all fine with me. You prefer concrete action, and that is very good of you. I won’t stop you or anybody from taking concrete action like a charity. But if you ask me to name some possible motivations for charities, I think love is one of them. I know it is not always like that, though. Some people do it only to feel better with helping “the poor”. Well, in a way, it is okay too, who am I to say it’s not right. If you don’t like Hugo Boss, you don’t have to wear it. If you don’t like the (use of) word “love”, you don’t have to say it. It’s so simple. You consider saying it comical, staying at the surface. Isn’t it because of your usage of the word? You don’t mean it at all when (you don’t like saying it, so “if” then) you say love, isn’t that it? You can laugh at a Hugo Boss or other sweater or Christmas lights if you like, but then I wonder, are you better or smarter or whatever than these people because you’re not wearing it or lighting them?
How seriously should this lighting mean what it says, btw? Well, I guess it is not meant to be funny, of course, but surely this lighting on the shrub won't do a miracle to save the world. Why can't we take it just as a simple Christmas lighting as it is? What's the problem?
Kym.
At December 19, 2004 at 3:01:00 PM GMT+1,
Borya said…
To sum it up in one word you were right in saying that to me it appears hypocrite. It's the inflational use of this word.
But I've thought about this discussion last night and think there's a large linguistic gap beneath it all. In my language people are having a hard time using the word "Liebe". You hardly will find such a lighning here. English speaking people are using words like "love", "darling" etc. much more, an intensity that irritates us.
Something similar happened with Spanish speaking people. It's usual for my friends to end a letter writing "un beso" or "un abrazo". Just last week I saw a postcard a Spanish friend of mine had written to a German friend of mine. Because this German friend cannot speak Spanish she had closed the card by writing "kisses". If taking it as we normally would in our language, it would give us some thinking. Nobody writes likes this, nobody uses words like this in my language. So all we can do is accept that foreign people are meaning it differently when writing something like this. But you have to get accustomed to, I can tell you. You just can't walk around easy going, you have to keep yourself away from thinking about it.
And how is it the other way round? Do we appear cold because we don't have the same use of vocabulary? According to my experience, yes. We get accused of often, and mostly we aren't. In case of my Spanish friends in came out that a lot of things weren't meant as they were said. You just say so. It was a challenge to make clear to talk about the same things.
At December 20, 2004 at 12:24:00 AM GMT+1,
Victor said…
So "love" isn't something we can all agree on?? Maybe not the useage of it. Perhaps "liebe" has a more specific meaning whereas "love" is used to mean everything from sex to a feeling of happiness. I guess some languages are more literal than others. But just think of the hours of fun you can have debating what John Lennon meant by "Love is all you need"! ;-)
At December 20, 2004 at 5:29:00 AM GMT+1,
Adam Solomon said…
I love love :)
I also love how my comment is 1000 times shorter and less deep than all the other comments...oy!
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