February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
And we will ponder the kind of tranquility that the world so desperately needs and yet finds so difficult to embrace.
Many indeed will send and receive greeting cards that carry the refrain “peace on earth.”
Christmas, despite all the commercial hype, remains the calendar’s most potent standard bearer for the idea that human affairs can be better conducted than history and current events might lead us to believe.
The holiday has many moments and symbols that point to the potential of a more peaceful coexistence: gift sharing, parties, meals with family and friends, and, for those who reach for the religious meaning before all else, the hope that is represented by the Christ child in the manger scene.
The real world, that from which we seek respite for a day or more, throws up many images that run directly counter to all of these.
2004 years after a child pointed the way, we still have considerable difficulty in following along the path that, we hope, leads to a more heavenly version of this material world.
But at Christmas, and at the turn of the year that follows, many, most, are still drawn to a future that we all know can be better, should be better, will be better. We know because we have such a thing as Christmas.
The trick now is taking Christmas from its fixed calendar position and spreading its spirit, if not its more material excesses, across the full page of the coming year.