Xmas approaches

But I am acutely aware that in the little Asterix-style village that was my home for more than a decade they are already six days in to Καλές Γιορτές, the festivities which run from St Nicholas on 6th Dec until St John on 7th Jan. I have had no contact for almost nine months. In that time pregnancies will have been announced, births, weddings, baptisms and funerals will have taken place, and I know nothing about them. I would have bought appropriate gifts. I would have worn appropriate clothes. I would have BEEN there. But it was not to be.

I want to wish them all a happy Xmas. I want to let them know that I think about them every day. How to do that? I don't know their full names and I left behind my SIM card with all their phone numbers.

However, they all share a single postal address :-) Surely I don't need to know everyone's full name? Surely I can just write to George at the village Post Office and let him know that I send love to the village, and that I miss them, all of them. That would work wouldn't it?

So here is a shadow of a straight thing projected onto a convoluted surface, in the sunshine, through a dirty window. Because that is what I have available to me today.