It’s understandable why some folks see the year-end holiday season as resembling the “holidaze” at times.
That phrase captures the rush and bustle of the last weeks of the year. People to be seen, parties to be attended and greetings to be dispatched via electrons, snail-mail, or both.
All of these to-do’s have their place. Holiday fellowship of family and friends can joyously restore tired souls. That makes all the traveling and other effort more than worth it.
Yet it’s not uncommon for a bit of weariness to chill the festivities at certain moments.
For, if nothing else, the holidays lend themselves to nostalgia. To remembering times past, and the people who populate our memories. Yearning for a seemingly simpler, easier era is understandable – and human. We all know, for example, that people were more generous and charitable years ago, right? Problems like terrorism were not a major concern in the pre-9-11, pre-TSA era, correct?
There’s a natural tendency to believe that the present marks the worst of times ever endured by a free people. For ours is now a fussy society that seemingly revels in discord, counterproductive argument and episodic violence of a shocking frequency and scale, even if crime stats suggest otherwise.
The “old” days – choose a year, depending on your age — were different, we believe. The world was a quieter, less-harried place. Peace and plenty were more prevalent across the land, we tell ourselves.
Yet, a quick glance back over the shoulder of time rattles that convenient view. Examining this newspaper’s rough draft of history shows that, while an era’s specific troubles don’t last always, turmoil and problems remain a constant – regardless of the calendar’s date.
Consider that the Christmas day 1988 combined opinion pages of The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution examine terrorism, given the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland, just four days before Christmas. People felt the terror of senseless, deadly, unexpected violence that holiday season.
Looking back further, the newspaper columns from 50 years ago reprinted below show that Atlantans agonized over pressing issues of their day and also fretted over how to make time for social interactions with friends and loved ones as Christmas approached.
A recurring theme from those long-ago newspaper pages was holiday charity. People scrambled back then, too, to buy a warm coat for a poor child, or bring other assistance to the needy.
Such efforts arise then and now from decent, compassionate spirits. They put into practice the essence of the oft-quoted New Testament message of “… on earth peace, good will toward men.”
That old, Christian passage has morphed into an ecumenical one through the years. The passage of 2,000 years has not diminished its soundness. Its broad applicability speaks to the best of humankind’s nature. Holiday acts of kindness, compassion, generosity and service are good and needed. And such a spirit of service should really help guide our individual walks through this world 365 days a year, we believe.
Yes, this world is a strange, complex place today. History shows that’s always been the case.
Yet, we can each make things better by making a difference, however small, in the lives of those around us.
The holiday season emphasizes commonalities that all decent humans share, whether we celebrate Chanukkah, Christmas or any of the other religious holidays observed by Americans who, thank God, are free to worship their Creator however they see fit – or not.
And in a secular, civil sense, what unites reasonable people, if we really think about it, should be greater than what divides us.
The same stars that lit the night skies in biblical times shine today. Our un-Southern-like cold weather of late makes them even more visible this year.
Those stars are seen across the world by anyone who takes a second to look skyward. That’s an humbling thought – that this quarrelsome, divided planet really is a pretty small place.
That eternal fact proves that — even as change incessantly washes across our land, pushing us into different tomorrows — some important things stay the same. The passage of a few years will bring big changes in how we live, dress, work, play and even worship.
Yet, the most-human of desires and wishes remain a constant for good people.
Peace on earth, good will toward men. That is worth pondering, and working toward, this Christmas and holiday season – and beyond.
