I didn’t see “A Christmas Story” until I was well into my 30s. Besides the memorable scenes of Flick the bully being triple-dog-dared to stick his tongue to a metal pole and Ralphie so thoroughly bundled up for harsh winter weather he couldn’t put his arms down (which comes back to me every time I have to go outside this time of year), who can forget the father’s glee over the arrival of the big wooden box labeled “FRAGILE.” Ralphie’s dad reads it as “FRA-GEE-LAY,” and assumes it’s a foreign language. The box, of course, contains the iconic “leg lamp.”
FRA-GEE-LAY keeps popping into my head this season.
The word “fragile” implies something that is easily damaged or broken. Newborns and the elderly are fragile. Fine antique porcelain is fragile. Some of those vintage ornaments on your Christmas tree are probably fragile. A box labeled “fragile” tells us we need to be careful how we handle it to avoid harming the contents within. In some cases it’s obvious, but there are plenty of things (that aren’t necessarily things) that are far more fragile than we might like to admit.
Life is both fragile and resilient. It can be snuffed out in an instant, or thrive despite harsh conditions. Once it’s gone, though, it’s gone, and that makes life fragile. That’s why we wear seatbelts, have warning labels, hold fire drills, take our vitamins and so forth… Those things are like bubble wrap for life to get us through the day-to-day with as little unnecessary damage as possible.
The pandemic demonstrated the fragility of our economy and our social structure. Who would have thought toilet paper would ever be a hoardable item? Or that grown adults would need reminders and instructions about hand washing?
The multiple debacles surrounding the last election and the alarming rhetoric coming from various sources about the next election have exposed an underlying fragility in our democratic republic, the “grand experiment” of the United States.
The pervasive spread of misinformation and disinformation via the internet and social media about literally everything under the sun shows us that truth and facts are incredibly fragile when subjected to repetitive lies. If a lie is repeated often enough, people tend to start believing it, and getting people to change their minds, once settled, is a heavy lift.
And here we are in the holiday season, where we’re reminded of our own fragility as stress and relationships and expectations and nostalgia take their toll. How should we handle these fragile things? Gently. Be gentle with yourself, be gentle with others, and be gentle with things, even those you’ve come to depend on, because all of those things — yourself, other people, and things — are likely more fragile than you think.
Recognize something that’s FRA-GEE-LAY? Be gentle with it. Especially this time of year.
By NIKI TURNER
