After the second night in a row of cat-induced sleeplessness, I decided to take a sick day today. This served the dual purpose of having me home to accept the UPS delivery of our holiday gift from my parents. I do not quite understand how UPS delivery is supposed to work here, for those of us who actually work during the day. I also do not understand why I got charged approximately 2/3 of the present’s value in import taxes (please don’t mention this to my parents!) especially given that my in-laws’ presents, shipped through US Mail, apparently arrived without tax due. It may be because they had a few small boxes instead of one big one; apparently not only the item’s value but also shipping costs are taxed. Grr. Rudder suggested we just let UPS keep the boxes, but not only do I like getting presents, I wouldn’t insult my parents like that. Grr anyway.
On the plus side, between parents and in-laws, I now have 300 meters of Noro Kureyon in a colorway that vaguely reminds me of sunrise, 440 m of a cotton tape yarn that shifts from peach to rust to sky blue to light olive, 600 m of Wildfoote sock yarn in sort of a tobacco-ey brown mix, and 400 m of Cascade 128 Tweed wool in pine green with flecks of red, yellow, and blue. I have absolutely no idea what to make of any of it (except the obvious socks!) but it should be fun deciding. I also have a guide for assessing yarn yardage, several hair ornaments (some I’d even have chosen myself – though anyway some of the fun of presents is finding things you didn’t know you’d like), and a CD by a Weavers tribute group – something I didn’t know existed, but they do sound like the originals. There are even guest appearances by Pete Seeger and Fred Hellerman.
When we got back from our trip it was still Christmas week, so I decided it was time to reread The Dark is Rising – just the book of that title, not the whole series. Somehow I didn’t enjoy it as much this time, and I know exactly why; it really bothered me that the Old Ones don’t have choices. Humans are given choices, mostly, throughout the series, and it’s stated that the Lords of the Dark come to it by choice rather than birth. I have trouble believing that anyone could battle convincingly for the Light without having gotten to choose his or her battle. Also, it’s made very clear that the Walker’s life, extended by some 600 years, has become a burden to him – so what are we to think of Merriman’s much longer life? Even worse is Will, condemned at the end of the series to live forever in a world in which he has the only magic, in which none of his peers remain. It seems like a fate that would turn into a doom relatively quickly. I believe that free choice is about the best part of the human birthright. How unfair to be born as an ordinary human and then find out, aged 11, that you are the one exception, denied that birthright for an eternity of isolation and a few tricks.
Don’t worry! The Old Ones are perfectly willing to remove free choice from other people as well, so they won’t be alone. That ought to be a comfort!
Um.
I had supposed that the Walker’s long life *of Dark* was a burden, and that if he’d lived a long life of good, every day would be a skippedy tra la etc.
But he doesn’t seem to have chosen the Dark in any meaningful way until *after* he gives up the Sign to Will. He has one conversation with Maggie, Merriman condemns him to becoming the Walker, and he’s hiding from the Dark Lords as long as he carries te Bronze Sign.
Back in the day, when I did a lot of overseas shipping, I was roundly scolded for sending a company partner a box via US Mail to Amsterdam (which was cheaper — he always complained about costs) instead of using UPS or FedX. The guy told me that the couriers walked the stuff through customs, whereas he had to go and pick up US Mail himself, costing himself valuable time. Fine, I told them all, I was never there to learn these things; send me on a fact-finding mission. (Obviously, they didn’t take me up on that.) That was a time when UPS was more reliable than it is today. I’m just saying.
This is why I never order things from Amazon.com any longer. The customs charge an arm and a leg for commercial products from the US. I’ve never had that problem with presents received though, so I think either it’s the difference between US Mail and UPS or it’s because the pressies from your inlaws were in small parcels rather than one big one.