It would be impossible to know how the holiday season is shaping up for you out there in the world, but for my family, the few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas this upcoming weekend have been nothing short of the pendulum of fateful circumstances swinging this way and that. Thinking about the ups and downs my wife and I have faced during the holidays this year got me thinking about the balance of life, not just during the holidays, but always, and what that means to us as residents on this massive spinning rock.
Providing a bit of background here, my wife and I just celebrated the birth of our third grandchild. I say it was we that celebrated because while I know her parents are overjoyed with the birth of a child, I also am aware of how quickly that joy fades into delirium after a few sleepless nights and what seems to be like an endless stream of dirty diapers.
Meanwhile, my wife and I are sleeping comfortably in our beds while it is someone else's responsibility to get up every three hours when awakened by the alarm clock of a screaming infant. All was joyful and right with the world... right up until my wife and I contracted covid, then not so much.
While not the sickest I have ever been, covid was not fun, and the news cycle was not going to put the brakes on simply because we needed to quarantine. So, we locked the door, conducted interviews via phone, and published a newspaper. Within a few days, we were on the mend, just in time for the next round of community events and public meetings.
While our health meters were returning to 100%, a second contagion would infect our household. There are few things more toxic than the puke of a seven-year-old with a stomach bug, and within hours of cleaning up after our youngest, my wife and I were again quite sick. So, we again locked the doors, listened to recordings of meetings we were unable to attend, and published a newspaper.
I would say this holiday season, both personally and professionally, has been a near-perfect example of life, the ups and downs, both good and bad. We have shared one of the most joyful experiences of human existence with one child and held the hair back of another while she got sick in the trash can beside her bed.
Simultaneously, within the pages of the newspaper, we have shared the innocence of children who are quite certain a turkey will cook perfectly at 50 degrees for 20 minutes. There are stories of communities getting together to share the holiday spirit and others about the altruism of both neighbors as well as strangers that just what to fulfill a need.
Unfortunately, positive stories are not the only ones we printed during this holiday season. It has been my experience that the news is but a narrow reflection of what is going on within a community, but it is a reflection nonetheless.
A community, like this newspaper, my own household, or life itself is in a continuous state of flux. There is joy and depression, sickness and health, charity and greed, morality and depravity, and in the end, we can only hope there is more of the former than the latter. But is hope enough? Can we do more?
We have all heard the phrase — and have probably used it when we were trying to get our way during the holiday season — “Come on, it’s Christmas.” Often enough, it works, and the person relents and goes the extra mile to help.
Wouldn't it be great if the phrase worked all year long? Perhaps an even bigger question would be, why does it work at all. If we have it within us to lend a hand, to go that extra mile, for the “come on, it’s Christmas” phrase to work on us, why doesn’t it last all year long?
I see little reason that it wouldn’t, so let’s try a little social experiment. No matter what the season, the next time someone asks you to do something you don’t want to do, just tell yourself, “Come on, it’s Christmas,” and let’s see if joy is as contagious as a seven-year-old's stomach bug.