Newsletter 12/11

December 2011

The Holiday Season is upon us. And I mean upon us; like a five-hundred pound boulder squeezing out our last ounce of energy, our last dollars, and our last drop of patience. With any luck, this will be the last holiday season if indeed the world ends on December 21, 2012. We can only hope.

Just kidding, of course. I love the holidays. In fact, I have a five-year-old son who renews my sense of wonder at Christmas, and in some strange way he makes me a kid again each December. If he believes in Santa, then I believe in Santa. If his eyes brighten at the sight of Christmas lights, then my eyes brighten. And every morning, when he tears down the stairs to find the Elf on the Shelf, I’m as excited as he is, even though I, or his mother, hid the Elf. Same with opening the door on the Advent calendar to find a small toy that brings an ear-to-ear grin to
his face.

Don’t get me wrong, the world is a tough place. You know it and I know it. But my son doesn’t know it. And neither do his friends, and hopefully neither do any five-year-olds anywhere. They’ll find out soon enough, but for now, the world is a place of magic and wonder; Santa is real, and so is the Elf on the Shelf and Santa’s other helpers, and Mrs. Claus, and flying reindeer, and the Polar Express, and the Miracle on 34th Street and on every street. And if you’re lucky enough to have a kid around, or if you can borrow one for a day or two at Christmas time, then you will be blessed and renewed, and through that child you can recall and relive your own childhood at Christmas when you, too, believed.

Merry Christmas to all, and my sincere wishes for a happy, healthy, and peaceful New Year.

And to my Jewish friends, which include my adult children, Happy Hanukkah.

I leave you with this from Elizabeth Akers Allen:
Backward, turn backward
O Time in your flight.
Make me a child again
Just for tonight!

Peace.

Sincerely,