Before my life with Ms. Ace, the month of December had a completely different meaning in my life.
When I was a child it meant either of two things: an insanely fun month of travelling around the world; or; an insurmountable amount of boredom, shallowness and fake “Christmas Spanish spirit”.
In a nonbeliever family, Christmas is a colourless affair, and I think that those Christmas overseas travels were a way for my father to become his true self. He was very charismatic and a great travel guide -I definitely owe him the gift of travelling; one of my greatest passions and source of much satisfaction in my life.
I have been a rambling man. How many countries have I visited, in the age before the fall of the Soviet Union? A dozen, at least -from beaches in the Caribbean to mountains in Europe.
I also remember drives through our own country, and here is where I got fascinated by the geography and the sights. Travelling was the best part of my childhood. By far.
I considered travel writing seriously at that time, and it could have become a source of income. But the opportunities back then did not come across as they do now: back then you had to study uni to create content. Impossible to believe in this day and age.
Back then, the distribution of news, radio and television was a heavily regulated industry, where the state regulated the use of the airwaves, the moral quality of the content, the roles of those involved in programming, and the political views of the station.
Today, everyone is a content creator. Cinema verité has eaten the world. And this fact is a terrible, unspeakable sin because there is content that does not deserve to be created.
Alien civilizations must be puzzled watching our social media streams:
…is this what they really are? they are not worthy of being invaded. Let them disappear naturally by being miserable to each other. Global warming will do the rest.
Anyone is a content creator. AI and computers are content creators. Content has lost its human edge to become mechanical and cheap. Infinitely cheap.
If I was in the travel writing industry I would have been sacked long, long ago. Travel writing is not a thing anymore to sustain a livelihood because the world has moved on to new realities.
Nowadays, travel influencers have distorted and bent the world in ways that were simply unimaginable 30 years ago, when I married Ms. Ace. Some people are trustworthy and genuine, but the large majority are people that I would not meet in real life.
They are cringeworthy.
Traditional communicators had to learn the craft. New communicators are in a never-ending race to achieve the most outrageous result. They are insufferable narcissists, attention-getters and deranged individuals. The aliens will agree with this observation.
Ms. Ace is a communicator and I owe my love of writing to her. She also taught me to understand the stories behind the printed word, and I developed a renewed love for reading that I still have.
She also brought the love for “American Christmas” to my life. It’s pretty fun, actually. Much better then the Spanish version.
So now in December, we decorate plastic trees made by children in the People’s Republic, with ornaments made by other children in some other locations.
I really love Ms. Ace. She still makes me smile.