Seasons Sequesterings

This, after all, was the month in which families began tightening and closing and sealing; from Thanksgiving to the New Year, everybody's world contracted, day by day, into the microcosmic single festive household, each with its own rituals and obsessions, rules and dreams. You didn't feel you could call people. They didn't feel they could phone you. How does one cry for help from these seasonal prisons? - On Beauty- Zadie Smith

'Tis the season. Right? That must be why the only recent calls on my cell phone are to/from my mom or bf. Conversations with both consisting almost entirely of inconsequential details or random reminders.

Mom: Can you believe they're having the wedding shower in Sherwood? The wedding invitation didn't even have her parents' names on it!

Me: Sherwood's right across the river Mom.

Mom: It said something like ___ and ___ request the honor of your presence at the wedding of their children. Her parents' name nowhere to be found. What kinda stuff is that?

Me: (melodramatically) Oh my God! How dare they! Surely they don't expect you to GO!

Mom: Stop it....so disrespectful! You do your best to raise decent children and this is what you get. What did I do wrong?

And so goes my holiday. At the start of it we all wish each other well, and scatter like so many billiard balls. Impenetrable holiday walls rise up around families. The season demands we spend quality time with people we suddenly (annually) realize that we barely know....are tired of... or can't stand.

The characters of my "normal" life have all exited stage left, each to his own family gatherings. Who can I call? Who can I text? Who's probably not doing anything?
I'm left standing alone...early-bird sale commercials blaring in the background. Is this the break I had longed for?
I think. Yes.

Leila and I sit on the couch, stealing glances at each other, thankful that it's just us. Without the pile of grading between us, I notice for the first time that she sighs deeply, at random, just like I do.
How could I have missed this?
And then I understand the reason for the season (other than baby Jesus, boosting the economy, an old fat man's improbable mission, or eating). Americans live too fast.
If we weren't made to stop, hole up for a few days, we probably would be too busy living to see who we're really living for (besides ourselves).
Be thankful.