All I Want For Christmas
All I want is for you to be still long enough to listen to your own heart.
All I want for Christmas is you…and maybe a fresh, hot, home baked cinnamon roll and a good cup of coffee.
Well, maybe that is too much for which to wish for everybody, given supply chain problems, inflation and whatever else.
So really, all I want for Christmas is for you to listen to your own heart.
Not your mind, but your heart.
I know I spend a lot of time arguing for reason and against emotion, but emotion is a part of us all and to deny its role in our humanity, both in our goodness and our penchant for evil, is to lack reason.
I know that “science” tells us the brain is really the locus of feelings and logic, but I still believe there is something else, something in the heart, something so elemental, so basic to humanity that it is rooted somewhere in our DNA. It is what causes us to do crazy things for love, for survival as well as for conquest and destruction. It is what causes us to defy odds in life threatening situations to save someone we don’t know or to kill that same person given different circumstances.
Even at our most visceral level, humans are the most complicated of beasts, blessed with the tools to do great things or to use those tools for great evil.
But, on balance, good triumphs.
Why would that be? What possible proposition exists that allows good to defeat evil, given that humans have an equal propensity for each?
It is God.
For some, God is an idea, a myth. For me, God is real. The Holy Trinity – God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit – has touched my life in miraculous ways. From the bad, good has come. From that process, I have learned that patience is a virtue, but digging your own self out of a pit is also part of a virtuous life.
Of course, there are those who will claim that evil has been done in the name of God, through religion and through politicized religious tribalism – but that is what humans do, they rationalize events, philosophies, and ideologies into support for their wants, needs, desires – and deeds, the evil men do to each other.
But truth is truth, and truth is transcendental.
From it are formed principles that, even though humans will miss the mark more often than not, will always serve to guide mankind to the good.
The most interesting thing is that we don’t need someone to teach us this.
I think that is because God is in us. He is represented in the miracle that makes us human.
I will ask something of you this year that has become an annual request
Whether you believe in God, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Buddha, Allah, or nothing at all, it is my sincerest wish that every reader experiences the joy of this holiday season with its spirit of brotherhood, redemption, charity, giving and family that comes with the advent of Christmastide. No matter your proclivity, it is difficult to experience the soaring majesty of Handel’s Messiah without feeling a stir in your soul (or whatever you call your ectoplasmic life force).
I remember my childhood and when I do, it fills my heart with warmth.
I remember watching the stars through frost covered windows as I lay in my bed on Christmas Eve, the frost crystals amplifying the sparkle. I remember straining to see Rudolph streaking across the sky and trying to quell the anticipation of Santa’s arrival, hoping against hope I had been good enough to receive the gifts I had wished for all year.
And you know what?
No matter what gift was under the tree, my wishes always came true - because no matter what it was, it came with the love of two devoted parents and the love of an extended family.
As in years past, I ask you to try to approach the holidays with that same child-like wonder, forgetting for at least a few hours the cynicism that is so rampant in the modern world…believe that the world can be better, that we ALL can be better and there really is magic in the world. I don’t ask that you believe in God or Christ the way that I do, I just ask that you believe in Santa for one day. I realize that to some of you he is just another fat white guy in a beard promoting the consumerism mantra of no money down, $50 a month – but give it a chance.
Forget modern Santa and see the Victorian Father Christmas of Clement Moore, the Father Christmas that existed before magic became the property of Hollywood, videogames and Walmart, the Father Christmas of a time when a simple orange was a gift to be celebrated, not something that you forgot to pick up at the grocery store in this modern age of plenty.
Just be still and quiet long enough to be grateful and understand how blessed we all are.
There are always unintended consequences and if you do not believe in God, you need to understand you still receive His blessings whether you want them or not.
The innocent voices of children always speak the loudest truths.
May the love of God and our love for each other sustain us in our quest for a better future for all.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.