Merry Christmas…Happy Hanukkah…Happy Holidays
This special time of the year is for everyone, the religious and the not religious.
It is a time when hearts overflow with joy and fill our minds with sweet memories of relationships present and past that make life what it is.
I don’t think any time of the year matches the power of this season to fill us with hope and gratitude.
Yes, we can feel overwhelmed with sadness for those who are no longer with us to celebrate or an incredible sense of loneliness if we spend most of our time alone.
We manage most of the rest of the year, but when Christmas approaches, even if we are not Christian, we especially feel the absences in our lives, whatever or whoever they may be.
And, of course, some people have such a negative attitude about the season that they make the story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, written by Theodor Geisel, better known as “Dr. Seuss,” seem real rather than make-believe.
But nothing can defeat or diminish the joy of the season fully because everyone likes to smile, to give and get hugs, feel grateful for life regardless of its downs as well as its ups.
It is in this spirit, then, that I wish you joy and happiness during these special days, but that is not the message I want you to hear as Christmas approaches.
My words are inadequate for that. Instead, I want to share the song, “So This Is Christmas,” written by the Dutch singer, Thomas Berge, and first made famous by John Lennon in 1971. The version here is sung by rising star in his own right, Matteo Bocelli, son of the incomparable Andrea Bocelli.
The words says everything that can or needs to be said at this moment this year and in these turbulent times, truly expressing a message that is for everyone whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, and simply the holidays.
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