I find it amazing that it has been almost a month since my last post. (Time flies, and at an increasing rate. I once heard a theory that this phenomenon is related the the apparent length of a year compared to ones total years, an increasingly smaller percentage as one ages.) It is now December 25th, Christmas Day. I got some gifts, and gave some gifts. I ate too much and spent too little time (21 hours of the last 24) with family and friends. All in all, a good holiday in a low key way.
Gone are the days of hectic hours spent at the mall and Toys R Us, thanks to the internet and that my children are grown. No more Christmas Eves spent, until the wee hours of Christmas Day itself, wrapping presents after they went to bed. I sleep as late as I want, unawakened by others' desire to see "if Santa had come." Golly, I miss it.
Yes I'm serious. This, and more, was and is still part of the magic that is Christmas for me. Surely, we can rant about the commercialization, the crowds, the crass materialism that comes with the season. But I refuse to let these things ruin it. There is a truer spirit of Christmas that runs deeper in many of us, even if we don't admit it, even to ourselves.
One of my favorite Christmas movies is "Scrooged" (1988) starring Bill Murray. He plays a quintesstially cynical TV executive that, true to the original story by Dickens, has an epihany enabled by several ghosts. At the end of the movie, he expresses his rediscovered feelings for Christmas: "It's Christmas Eve. It's the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year we are the people that we always hoped we would be."And yes, Virginia, those people do exist. Last week a local newspaper columnist reported the effort to raise funds so that the members of a local National Guard unit could be home for Christmas. It seems they had leave, but no transportation back here from their pre-deployment training site in the deep south. 2 buses were procured at a substantial discount and more than enough money was donated. Standard human interest holiday fare, you say?
No, not by a long shot. For he published the message that came with one donation. It read: "Your story hit me like a ton of bricks. I am an unemployed medical receptionist. I have been out of work for a year. I have gone on a lot of interviews, but no one wants someone in their 40s in their front office apparently. I have earned a paycheck since I was 14. I attended LCC and have kept up with the medical clerical field while looking for employment....This has been a real self confidence killer. My son, a former scout in the U S Army, was nearly killed in Afghanistan seven years ago. The American Red Cross military services helped us tremendously. My unemployment extension barely covers rent and utilities, but I am going to send $50 to help a soldier come home - a drop in the bucket compared to what some are giving."
I personally feel humbled. This, if nothing else, is proof that the spirit of Christmas is alive and well.
