This is supposed to be part of my photo challenge titled Pick a Word that I run every month of the year and now it is time for December.

December, the most challenging month, is the time of year when I am more introspective than usual. The work and chores triple and and everyone around thinks only about partying and what to drink and eat. Not in my household though, thankfully, and the fact that I have been temporarily removed from insensitive office environment has made my professional life easier.

Still, why do I sound as if I am bitching? Because I am.

Today I went to one of the sites (a new and one of many locations in Zagreb) of the 4-week Christmas market, a festival of flashy lights, white kiosks offering greasy food and spirits in many forms. Apparently, you need liquor to keep your spirits up and survive holidays.

If I dislike the commercial aspect of Christmas time so much why do I go to such places, you may ask…. Usually, I don’t. But today, foolish and credulous as I am, I went to see what the students and professors of the Art Academy in collaboration with the city officials chose to put in their park inviting people to linger (and to accumulate more rubbish that later on the city government will have difficulty to dispose of).

(Now I wish I had taken photos to show you the disgrace of the site that people were queuing in hours to see on the first day of the food/drink binging festival. I went there in broad daylight to “assess“ the site, without the distraction of crowds and with the kiosks closed.

I went there “hungry” not for the spirit of Christmas, for Christ’s sake I am not a child, but for some inspiration, to see beauty, to see human spirit beat consumerism, and all I saw were some ridiculous installations hoovering over three or four sculptures that had always been in that park (no Christmas surprise there), but now they were covered in dog (and I hate to think whose else’s) pee.

What I am trying to say…. is that if you belong to one of those places whose government decided to close Christmas markets in order to slow down the effects of the pandemic, and you feel awful about that, you don’t have my sympathy. The only way I could feel sorry for you is if your livelihood depended on the goods that you were going to sell there.

Otherwise, if you can’t find joy inside you, no amount of turkey or booze will bring it to you.

With this deliberation off my chest, I am still going to challenge you…. this time with the photos and the assigned words that celebrate children and the child in each and every one of you.

Good health, peace and joy to you all!

INTROSPECTIVE

ANTICIPATING

BEFRIENDING

CHOICES

WISH

©PAULA BORKOVIC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED