Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Light up the world

My Christmas celebration continued last night with taking the kids (my niece, age 5, and nephews, 3 and 1) to the Festival of Lights at a local park. This was my first year going and I wasn't expecting much, although the brochure hyped

Winter Lights is a unique spectacle of lights that's sure to capture the imagination and create lifelong memories. Winter Lights 2003 includes more than 300 illuminated displays, and 60 animated displays along a 3.5-mile drive in an enchanted forest setting. A drive through the park is like a drive through a holiday fantasy as festivalgoers will experience an array of characters and displays that will truly light up the night. Special themed areas include Winter Woods, Teddy Bear Land, Victorian Village, the North Pole and much more!

And actually, it was kinda fun. There were some cute animations, like an ice-skating bear who fell down ("on his butt!" giggled my niece), and my nephew spent the whole time with his face glued to the car window, his eyes as big as the proverbial saucers. Kids love lights.

I still love lights. Driving around this past week I've realized that, especially that I love colored lights.

In the neighborhood where I grew up, where my parents still live, we had a neighbor, Tony, who outlined his whole house in colored lights. Then he did the trees and the bushes. Then he built wooden supports for more lights. After a few years of increasing his display we were getting traffic jams in the neighborhood all through December as people came to look at the "light house." Eventually he even created light displays for other holidays, like Valentine's Day and the 4th of July.

Tony was one of those perpetually happy people who always made you feel good. Sometimes I'd run into him at the gas station or grocery store and after we stopped and chatted...after he'd grinned and told a joke and complimented me on something not worthy of a compliment...I'd go away feeling like a million bucks.

Tony passed away a few years ago, and the visitors overflowed the funeral home at his wake. When I got to the front of the line for the viewing I saw a string of mini Christmas lights around the casket and couldn't help but smile. I also saw the grin...not the usual frozen undertaker smile, but an actual grin...on Tony's face. "I wonder how they got his smile to look so real," the neighbor behind me commented.

After a second of thought I said "What makes you think he wasn't smiling like that when he went?"

Tony's family no longer does the full light show...his kids have families and it's too much for his wife. They house is still decorated, but you can't see the glow from space, and they don't get traffic jams. But when the decorations come down in January there is one bush next to the front door that stays lit, always, with mini lights, Tony's eternal flame.

The park with the light show is right around the corner from the old neighborhood. Driving through the lights, I said to my sister "Would Tony have loved this or what?"