Why we should be more charitable and hold Christmas in our hearts all year long | Opinion
In 1966, the popular duo Simon & Garfunkel recorded a song titled “7 O’Clock News/Silent Night.” In it, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel sing “Silent Night” while a newscaster reports the news in the background, reading stories of war, crime, racial strife and greed from the era. The collision of harmony and harm, the juxtaposition of a carol where all is calm and all is bright with a reality where things are much the opposite, was the point.
A present-day newscaster’s report would be strikingly similar.
The Age of Aquarius? We live in an age when rancor permeates our society, a world where our leaders don’t always encourage or nurture love for and the understanding of those around us.
Yet traditionally at this time of year, we are called upon to be charitable, to take care of one another and to give the best of ourselves to the world around us. For centuries during this time of year, people have celebrated joy, birth, love, fellowship, sharing, and the brilliance of being alive, and there is always the hope that the warmth and charity of the holiday season might extend to all the months of the year.
This hope is beautiful, but it is not enough.
In our current season, we must actively mitigate the turmoil and aggression surrounding us and find our way back to benevolent thinking.
There’s an old saying: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” And there’s never been a better time to focus on what does indeed lie within us.
By examining our personal animosities, prejudices, and antipathy toward others, perhaps we can conclude that we don’t really want to be defined by our perceptions of others that block us from feeling empathy and generosity.
There are examples all around us of those who need our compassion, not our antagonism. Here is one pertinent example.
I teach at a local college where I have a few students in my classes who are called “Dreamers,” a reference to legislation that was designed to protect children who came here illegally and give them an opportunity to achieve the American Dream.
They now have the legal right to temporarily live, study and work in the United States, and they do not fit the negative stereotypes that some politicians would have us believe. They are not violent criminals, they are not trying to take over “our jobs,” and they are certainly not members of any cartel. Their once bright futures are again uncertain with the divisions in Congress and the coming change in the White House.
In reality, they are hardworking young people who want to make a better life for themselves and their children. They don’t get federal aid to attend college, and some of them work two or three jobs to help pay for their college costs. They are strong students, ambitious and dedicated to getting an education that will allow them to find work, raise a family and contribute to life in the community. They deserve our favor, not our suspicions.
One of my Dreamer students is studying to become a nurse. She is an excellent student on a straight path toward a successful future. Yet she wrote in a recent essay that instead of looking forward to the happy life she has been working so hard to achieve, she is now fearful of living in a detention camp behind a barbed wire fence, separated from her children, and eventually being deported. She doesn’t deserve to have to worry about this kind of a future.
There has never been a better time to focus on what’s inside us. With all the political winds blowing around us that would have us be less charitable toward others, it’s never too late to return to the essential message of the season of caring and love for one another.
In Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Ebenezer Scrooge said it best himself when he told the Ghost of Christmas Future: “I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year.”
May we all find a way to help keep the transformational power of charity and love alive and well in ourselves and our leaders.