Yesterday , one week before the big day the highways were backed up for miles leading into the mall.
Will the shoppers really find what they want for Christmas at the Mall. I never have. I dwell on this question and wonder why am I so out of synch. I think it has to do with not ever wanting for much for myself.
I once heard a man talk of the Christmas when he got two oranges as his only gift. It was many years back during the depression years, his family was destitute and without any means at all. He cried at the memory, just as he tells of crying out of the gratitude of having gotten them. He spoke about the heavy feeling they had and how he quickly peeled the first and ate the sections one by one, allowing the juice to set in his mouth, and how he licked the taste of the orange from his fingers. The second he kept for days before he ate it, knowing that it would be a long time before he would have another. He said that he can not eat an orange without recalling the memory. Can I imagine someone crying joyfully upon receiving two oranges as his Christmas gift. I admit that I can, and I will admit that the idea nearly brings me to tears.
I have always , no forever always, been mindful of how much it cost people at Christmas time. Forever, when asked what did I want for Christmas , I say nothing. Not that I do not reply, I do and I say I want for nothing. In actuality, I want for so many things that I shall never get. I want my children to be happy and successful with the deepest part of my heart. I want my wife to be healthy , as do I wish it for myself. I want people to be free of the stress and strife that frequently invades life. I want us to all just get along. I want hope and prosperity for all. I want all of those things depicted in so many appeals to disappear from our world, I want abused animals and hungry children and sick and dying people wounded warriors and starving refugees to disappear, I want their plight to abate.
I never get what I want., but out of this I recognize just how much I have and for that I am ever thankful. That is why it is easy to drop a buck or two in the red kettle at this time of year, so to speak. We haven't completely lost our view. insurance against the same fate, in our hearts we know what it is. The hope that we can be spared.
The whole point of the season is to have us feel good about mankind, Good will toward men. That is why we choke up at the idea of a dying child being gifted his final wish at Christmas, or a story of someone dropping 100 bills into the Red Kettle randomly about town makes us feel great. The homeless children whose toys were boosted out of the back seat of the car, only to have some anonymous benefactor provide new gifts and a place for them to live. The soldier returned home in time for Christmas, the families coming together in good cheer. The miracles of Christmas are our there to be found and seen.Oh, the Christmas Stories are many and varied, but the all come back to the infant with no place to stay , so he was laid in the manger.
We need this point on the pencil of each year. We need to renew hope after having absorbed the insults and difficulties or another turn of the calendar. 2016 being no different, for who can not agree that just the electoral process was enough to extinguish good feeling for at least another year. So we celebrate at Christmas raising our temperament and our hopes. This is a good thing. Imagine if we had to suffer through another year of campaigning, God wouldn't that put a chill on good will toward men. Donald with his virulent attacks and Hillary with her screeching , Barrack with his pious scolding. It is over so let us be merry and bright. .Celebrate that which is right and good and don't worry if Uncle Billy will like the tie he gets.
I who admit things are sometimes lousy, know that they are often not as bad as they seem and frequently are better than we will ever admit. So put a smile on your face and look to the good.
Pajamas , underwear nd socks and a toy or two, all done up in holiday wrap. There was a tree and lights. My memories of long ago Christmases seem to be my own, unshared . I think I will have to plumb the depths of memory and ask my siblings what their memories reveal about this the holiday of all holidays. I remember the anxiety of the night before and the early awakening. Oh, for sure I remember setting up the trains and the like, Lincoln logs and the visible human and the Visible V8 , Boy Scout stuff and all that. Gifts for all. How was this possible in a family of nine children. That is what always caused me wonder. What sort of sacrifices were made to provide for others, how did I get such a sense of this so many years ago, I knew of it even before I COULD ARTICULATE THE IDEA OF IT. How was this possible. The daily efforts made for others are the true gifts and really all that we ever need.
Yesterday, I got a glimpse of what the Holiday was about to some extent. My wife is a Christmas person, she thrives on it. We decorated a tree, lights and ornaments, just the two of us and the dog. The lights had gone up on the house the previous week. Why were we doing this, surely not for me. Lugging boxes from the basement on a gloomy December day. But then I realized it was not for us, it was to make a memory that maybe our children would carry forth in their lives. To give them some happiness that they might never have had but for the holiday. Two oranges so to speak The Holidays are to lift our collective spirit and give us a memory. Finally I am getting an answer.
Don't look for Christmas at the mall. It isn't there. But do keep on searching and with luck you will catch a view of it as it quickly passes on one day.WATCH THIS
I who wants nothing, wish everything for you, just as everything I have ever needed has been given me. Merry Christmas.