Illusions

I had a lot of time yesterday to contemplate this old saw: OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR.

It could be said in other ways.

In the end it boils down to one thing: THIS MIRROR IS ONLY SO RELIABLE.

Traffic between Hartford and the Delaware Memorial Bridge moved along pretty well. Then we hit the predictable jam in the DMV, 95 South in Maryland and the Beltway around DC into Virginia just crawling toward our destination.

At that point I had to ask: how in the world are the objects in the mirror any closer than they appear? There they were in my windshield. There they were in my rearview. In the driver side mirror, the objects behind me appeared as thick as all I saw stopped in lanes before me.

Surrounded by reality, I had to accept that it didn’t matter what the mirror said about the objects on the road. I just had to make my way home, flow with other holiday travelers also making their way home, college stickers on windows and trunks, remnants of the political season on bumpers, Christmas trees on a few rooftops.

Christmas, another reality that’s closer than it appears, now stands in its usual corner, merry colors sparkling against the morning twilight. In this way, the arrival of winter seems more tolerable – or is more tolerable than it seems.

Our temps this week will plunge to the bottom of the twenties. On Wednesday morning I’ll mount my bike at the last possible reading for a ride to work, 21 degrees. It’s been a month since we turned back our clocks and stole an hour from the evening run, tilting noon off its axis and altering the entire course of the day. For the next three weeks, sunlight will recede and leave us to suffer ever-longer periods of darkness.

Our Japanese Maple outside the window, brilliant red throughout the fall, has shed its leaves. I may have to wrap it in something merry and light.

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