Christmas Eve

     So this evening I was walking through the city a bit, just kind of existing, and I stopped in front of this building. This building that has stood there for almost 800 years. 800 YEARS. And as I stood there trying to find some kind of context in which to contemplate this building, everything it has stood through, I found that I just couldn't! Standing there in the cold in the dark with my head craned back and my brain all a-jumble, I felt like Christmas Eve.
     You know on Christmas Eve when you're frantically trying to finish wrapping the gifts for your family and it's already almost midnight and you have to get up early to open presents or go to church and you're on the last gift and it's a basketball, or any other really incredibly difficult-to-wrap gift, and you're struggling with the wrapping paper but no matter how much tape you use (or how much wrapping paper you use) there are still holes on either side and part of the gift is sticking out and the paper just won't fit? That's how I felt standing there, as if Salamanca, bueno, Spain rather, were the awkwardly shaped gift and my brain the wrapping paper that just couldn't quite wrap around it.
     But in the end you always leave the gift wrapped as best as you possibly can because, even with parts showing through, you know whoever receives the gift will enjoy it just the same. So that's what I'm left with, my brain only partially wrapped around this wonderful place and only 16 days left to enjoy it and try to add some more tape.