On Christmas in June

As a child I used to get despondent in the Summer because Christmas, the great delight and purpose of my young life, was so far away. As an adult I have found an excellent cure for this despondency: putting seeds in the ground, and praying for the best. The childish excitement and anticipation of gifts and treats can’t hold a candle to the anticipation of seeds sprouting. To know that, through your own help, living things will emerge from seemingly impossibly tiny prisons to cover two hundred square feet of earth—indeed, depending on the plants, to make a veritable jungle of that once-bare patch—is gratifying and thrilling at once. Moreover, depending on your strategy, if can be quite a bit less expensive than Christmas, too.