A Few Days Until Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I haven’t posted in a while, again. Our house is an incredible mess, but it’s a happy kind of mess, with baked products and the components for several handmade gifts cluttering up the countertops. We don’t have a garage, or a a craft room, so the kitchen table is the workbench of choice. I think we’ve spent more time around that table together working in the last couple of weeks than we usually do in a month. I’ve pitched in to work on the gift my wife is making for my sister, and she ensured that I didn’t blow the lettering on the one I’m making for my brother’s wife.

A few years ago we decided that in order to increase the amount of thought and effort that went into selecting gifts for close friends and family, we started to hand make gifts. In order to pick gifts that will be enjoyed and used, I find that I have to start thinking about options in October or November. These gifts often end up costing more than a store bought gift that we would have previously picked, but they’re fun to make. And I learn something new each year when I pick a project. What’s more, I get more efficient at it every year. The gifts have gotten better every year, I think. And when I make one and love it, I get excited to start ,making things for other people who weren’t on  my list.

This year a few events threatened to overshadow Christmas. The “End of the World” scheduled for today drove me nuts. I’m too pragmatic to enjoy a lot of joking around about an event that is a non-event. Only at the last second did it seem to spur any type of dialog about “What would you be doing if these were your last few hours on Earth.”

The killings at Newtown, CT were milked for maximum entertainment by the mass media; thank goodness we don’t have cable TV. If I could take away one positive from those horrific events, I would say that we might be learning, as a society, that true heroes aren’t always the ones toting guns and mowing down bad guys. Sometimes true heroes are people who make incredibly wise and beautiful decisions, while surrounded by carnage and mayhem. Hollywood and our military industrial complex has taught us that justice gets served when the bad guy gets shot by the protagonist, and order is restored. These days, the bad guy seems to kill himself more often than the “good guys” in uniforms and badges do. And what ends up happening, in real life, is that society is left with all kinds of unanswered, and potentially unanswerable questions. I’m a big believer that the heroics happen unheralded. Think of the outpouring of love and forgiveness it will take to move that town, and by extension, the nation, beyond this tragedy. As a volunteer with Victim Services  where I live, I know that the heroics will mostly take place long after the event is over. People will reach out to one another in love and support. Some kind souls, whether friends, relatives, or total strangers,  will continue to support the families of the deceased long after the TV cameras have packed up and moved on, money made, and looking for the next crisis.

A friend of mine from junior high days lost his older brother, unexpectedly, last month. I wonder to myself what heroes will reach out to him in the months and years after the cards and calls stop coming.

This season gifts us with the opportunity for introspection. For those of us who believe in Christ, it presents us with the chance to consider what true heroics looks like. It comes with a message of peace, goodwill towards men. It comes wrapped in the songs of angels, on a hillside under the light of a guiding star, saying “Fear not”.

To all my wonderful friends, family and the wider blog-following world, I wish you the very best this Christmas. Instead of giving in to fear, anger, or cynicism this year, just let your heart rejoice in the simple pleasures of home, family, friends, and the joy of this special season that is so unlike any other.

Merry Christmas!