Christmas 2007

As we look around us at the end of this year, one is tempted to succumb to a sense of bleakness - war, an unsettled economy, expensive energy, a divisive political life in our country, along with an endless presidential campaign, the increasing impact of changes in our global climate, religious fanaticism, corporate greed, our inability to deal effectively with hurricane, fire, earthquake, and flood, not to mention our national and personal debts.

Beyond all this, we appear to be a country more intrigued with the contemporary equivalent of the "bread and circuses" of Roman times - reality tv, sports, and retail therapy - than with our political life, with the values we want to convey to those walking behind us, and with finding a sense of hope out of the contemporary chaos. That's a complicated sentence, and I apologize for it, but these are complicated times.

Yet there is much in the streams of our lives to value and be grateful for - people and institutions who sustain the people around them in so many ways, those who contribute to the mitigation of catastrophe, those who pause long enough in the tempest of daily life to say, "Thank you," and the adventurous souls who continue to to try to create a better future for all of us through their thought and imagination.

A few years ago, I found my interest in the Christmas of commercial world diminishing in a significant way, to the extent that even on my company's web-site, it is not often mentioned - we ship around the world, and there are so many different (and worthy) traditions out there, I thought it would be foolhardy to try to mention them all or to put one in front of another. So about all you find on our web-site is something about closing for our Christmas break, which is what it is.

What buying I do is done in the small town where I live and occasionally on-line. Nowadays my sisters and I exchange cookies, balsam wreaths, fruitcake, what our mother used to call tokens. How right she was. These are just modest indications of a valuable and loving relationship, and that is sufficient unto the day.

I have told you this story before, but in case you missed it.....Some years ago I was in Cambridge, England, for the annual Christmas Eve presentation of "A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols," from the Chapel of King's College Cambridge (more details about the radio broadcast below). A few days before the service, I ran into the Dean in the Chapel, and during our conversation I said I was surprised that the chapel looked as it did at other times of the year when I had visited - beyond the glories of the building's fabric and glass, there was no hint of the Christmas season - or put simply, what I had become accustomed to in my own country. He sought details, and I said that in the USA, churches are decorated with poinsettias, wreaths, pine trees, ribbons, and so on.

He looked at me kindly and said, "Here, we believe that Christmas is in the heart."

Although I felt about an inch tall after taking onboard what he'd said, I knew instantly, to the marrow of my bones, that he was right, and that one sentence has for many years kept me from toppling into the abyss, you know, the one where we mistake the giving of stuff for the gift of love. It was a great thing the Dean bestowed on me, and during every Christmastide since, I have been exceeding glad of it.

And so at this time I turn inward and try to contemplate anew the simple story which has been a part of my life since I can remember...about a man and his wife travelling home to be taxed, and the birth of a son whose life was to affect much of the world. The words and the music surrounding the story lift up my spirit and sustain me through all the distractions.

On Christmas Day morning, I pour myself a large cup of coffee, sit in my favorite chair, lift Islay the scotty up and put her on my lap. Then we look out to the lake and one of us remembers the Christmases past and feels sustained by memory, love, and the knowledge that if Christmas is not in the heart, it cannot truly be Christmas. The other keeps an eye out for squirrels with full knowledge that any chase will be futile, no matter what. Both perspectives are appropriate and worthy.

To you and yours, Islay and I wish you a happy and contented season celebration of your choice.

Nick Nash