I dropped my slightly used Christmas tree off at the tree collection point at the middle school the other day.

I really hated to see the fellow go. I’d scored a great deal waiting until six days before Christmas to pick it up and had gotten a beautiful 7′ fur for $15. A little TLC and lots of water perked him right up. Two strands of lights, seven ornaments, a star on top and a pine cone tied furtively where my wife wouldn’t see it and take it down turned him into the center point of our den. He shone and smelled wonderful!

Two little grandkids were also enamored with him. He presided royally over our Christmas morning festivities and even after all the family left I continued to light him up each night for days afterwards. When I took him down, there was a tad of sadness at seeing him go. I even kept him in the garage, upright and watered for another week. My garage smelled heavenly (Christmasy) each night as I came home.

One year, at another location, I’d thrown our tree into the woods behind the house. It took almost 6 months before it finally turned brown. Remembering that, I considered keeping the current tree in the garage until summer. If I watered it, it might last even longer.

I lost that discussion.

So, I packed him up on my truck, took off the stand and headed to the middle school. Though I knew what to expect, the sight of hundreds of Christmas trees ingloriously thrown into large heaps caught me off guard. With a small sigh, I pulled out the tree and placed (not threw) it gently to the side of the heap. Taking a deep breath of that wonderful smell of hundreds of furs piled together, I left.

And that set up an interesting thought…