OUR SAD little tree, awaiting disposal.

Sir Issac Newton, the scientist who invented gravity and the Fig Newton cookie, wrote that “for every action, this is an equal and opposition reaction.”

So it is with the holiday season.

It seems that the same amount of effort and hassle that leads us to perform all kinds of expensive and time-consuming tasks for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s etc. is required of us to undo all of that when Jan. 2 rolls around.

And you have to do it all in reverse, without the buoyancy provided by the Christmas (etc) spirit. The trimming of the tree in December, full of color and bon homie, becomes a dreary pruning of your living spruce plant pal. Inevitably, a few glass ornaments fall to the floor and shatter, decorating the underfoot with silver slivers scattered among the pine needles which seem impossible to sweep up with anything less than an NASA-strength vacuum device.

You drag the tree to the front yard – sap all over your hands and jacket – and leave it there at the curb, a reminder that it’ll be another 10 months or so until you get to feel quite that cheery again.

Of course, January is when the bills come due for the gifts you bought for others, and you get to reflect on the fact that some people you spent $200 upon spent $19.95 on you.

And January is the month when you finally have the courage to step on the bathroom scale and face-up to the revelation that the five pounds you cheerfully put on in one month will take six months to grumpily diet and exercise off.

So I look at all the labor and lucre expended and honestly say … totally worth it!