20020220
From 01EGB
" Yesterday was Presidents' Day. I was driving down to Kennebunk Saturday night to fiddle at a dance, winding along some inky black ribbon of Route 1, when from behind some pines I noticed a ghostly blue illumination. As I neared the source of the glow I realized (now in its full blaze) that it was actually a pine tree, maybe twenty feet tall, full and fat, swathed in row after sagging row of Christmas lights: the top strands making a sea of blue with occasional white flourishes, presumably stars, and the bottom strands carefully hung to form columns of red and white, alternating. Mike, I've never seen anything like this. It was garish. It was grotesque. It was beautiful. Kind of like half-time at the super-bowl: you couldn't believe the excess, and you couldn't look away. Poor little humble tree, a mere vehicle for a grander sentiment. It stays in my mind."
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