'Needles' to say....

The only kind of Christmas decorations I like after the first of January are dead Christmas trees.   I start looking forward to them the third week in December when a big sign shows up along the running path that says, "Recycle Christmas Trees Here."   A few days after Christmas they start showing up and it's the best smell on the path all year!

This year, in addition to closing my eyes and taking a deep breath as I ran past, I looked at the pile and noticed that almost all of the trees were the same kind.  In fact, in a pile of about 50 trees, I only saw one that wasn't the same as all the rest.  It made me wonder if a different Chicago neighborhood would have a different pile of trees.   I had a feeling it probably would.  And that started to bug me, so I decided to google a thing or two about Christmas trees.  I started with "rich people Christmas trees" because this pile happens to be in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city.  That didn't get me very far.  I won't tell you what else I googled, but you can probably imagine what it might have been now that you see I'm odd enough to actually google "rich people Christmas trees."  

So, why does everyone in this neighborhood (including me, sadly) have the same kind of tree?  I suppose it's the same reason everyone drives the same kind of black sports car or SUV (yuck), wears the same kind of boots (ugh, no pun intended) and has the same kind of cell phone (which DOESN'T start out almost square and flip open to slip perfectly under the straps of a bike helmet, like mine does).

Anyway, I started thinking about how easily we can be defined by our "things".  I guess that's life, right?  But has it always been that way?  I know it's not such a bad thing and it's just life and to each his own (I'm still working on that one), but it still bugs me.  In fact, I wrote something about this awhile back.  I know I think about it a lot when I'm traveling.  Not knowing the cool neighborhoods and fashionable clothes or the difference between good and bad grammar when I travel is probably the reason I find myself in such unusual places with such unique people.  I'm apt to go anywhere with almost anyone because I don't have the preconceived notions.  I know it's not the smartest thing to do, but so far I've been more than lucky.

I can remember when I was in high school and a boy called to play a trick on me by not telling me who he was.  Then one small question gave me a big clue.  I asked him what kind of shoes he was wearing.  I wasn't looking for a brand name.  The kind of shoes my friends and I wore at the time had style names (bluchers, dirty bucs (also spelled bucks), tassel loafers...). When this guy could only answer, "What do you mean what kind of shoes?  They're brown shoes," I knew right away who he wasn't. 

The other day a friend came in the studio wearing his Barbour (that IS a brand name) and I told him I had to call his blind date's best friend to tell her he was wearing a Barbour because it's something we'd joked about recently.  I still wear my Barbour, but I've been told that it's not in fashion anymore. Anyway, I was positive that the blind date wouldn't know what it was, but that the best friend would know.  And I knew that it would tell her something about this guy, just like it told me something about him (that he was out of fashion, too).

I wish I would've found out where the other Christmas tree recycling points were around the city. I would've liked to have spent a day watching the people drop them off.  I'm quite sure I wouldn't have seen a parade of black SUVs with drivers clad in bucs and Barbours.  And I have a feeling I wouldn't have found a pile of forty-nine firs and one scotch pine.

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.  If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened.  But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."   -Friedrich Nietzsche