The Confetti on the Tree

"I began to realize how important it is to be an enthusiast in life. 

White hot and passionate is the only thing to be."

                            -Roald Dahl 

Confetti on the Tree 

The confetti on the tree

Well, that calls to me!

Ribbons, strings, paper bonnets 

They call to me.

Roots remain rooted,

None uprooted

Stems stay steeped

No sap has seeped

Yet the confetti on the tree

The Christmas-y blitz and glitz

And glamour- shimmering and glimmering

Rising into an uprising-

It gives me a faint,

Yet quaint, call. 

The ribbons on the mighty tree

Beckon me to run up to them

Admire them

Then ruffle them up a bit

And give them the friendly old pat

For making the tree beautiful.

Woe be me- says the tree- the confetti-

The fluff on the head- for it to soothe the shoots

And calm the roots

And keep the tree in one piece-

It'd have to be less glitzy

And more... 

Functional.

Who hasn't been drawn to Christmas decorations on trees young and old?  Which infernally stoic person has not allowed their mind to be beguiled by a tree's bright bonnet? (The confetti, the decorations?)

No one. And yet, and yet, my dear reader, there is no way for you not to acknowledge that the confetti being embroidered onto the tree didn't affect its internal processes and functions- for the better, or for the worse. It drew you to the tree, for sure, but for the stolid tree itself, for all it knew, it could have shrugged the ghastly montage right off and been on the seventh heaven of delight. (Well, not exactly it wouldn't, because it would have grown shorter by a few inches. :))

And yet, verily and eerily and sadly, you and I, we fawn over the confetti a little more than we should. The roots are steeped in the lower layers of the soil profile and the branches are hinged on the veneer of the tree's trunk. The tree breathes oxygen and life, through its wily leaves, fresh, sometimes even fragrant- but which lose their identity in their uncanny similarity. All of this happens- every deadly day, every minute, second, millisecond.

But color fascinates us. Exuberance,  not functionality, is more of our thing. To us, more often than not, flavor precedes form and function.

And so we embrace reward over ritual. Right over rite. Fame over form. Show over simplicity. The list is too long for me to enlist. 

In simple terms, our emphasis on the reward and the outcome is so great, that our tethers- our roots- are forgotten. And so are our feelers of growth- our branches that disentangle themselves and help us to explore new lands and tempests.

The situation is saddening, because, as mentioned earlier, glamour is one thing that certainly sells, and will probably never cease to. 

This is where I believe that 'connecting to the cause' and 'embracing the effect' enter the picture. Rewards are all well and good, hunky dory, but when it comes to the brass tacks, it's the brazen effort, the sheer and grueling grit, and the striking sincerity, that play the biggest role.

As children, we are entrenched in a system that values reward and recognition, sometimes even a notch above attitude, effort and improvement. 

But let's say we keep aside the confetti for a bit. Let's say we look at what makes the tree breathe as it does, work as it does.

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."

Let's look at the enchantment. The magic. The how-it-works. 

The fundamentals. The science. The ruggedness. 

Let's brandish a goodbye for the confetti on the tree.