[ OUR OPINION ]
Rekindle the darkened light
of ChristmasDEMANDS of the season accelerate the already fast pace of life and leave little time to contemplate the holiday. Against the backdrop of intensified global strife and an afflicted economy, Christmas celebrations -- frantic as their preparations may be -- bring momentary reflection on blessings large and small.
THE ISSUE Conflict and discord may obscure the holiday, but need not mar its purpose.
Human conflict unsparingly ignores dates on a calendar marked for observances or festivities. For many other cultures, December 25 is just another day indistinguishable from the last.
Disharmony overshadows existence as equally as indifference blunts solicitude. The catalog of suffering never seems to shrink.
For every lost child found safe, many others remain absent. For every war averted, another seethes in its place. Sabers rattle, words and posturing provoke counterpoints. Exacting an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth inches the world relentlessly toward discord and away from the peace of the season. From North Korea to Pakistan and Iraq, from Somalia to Venezuela and the United States, to the Philippines and Bali; from bombs in shoes and in cars exploding in Palestinian and Israeli neighborhoods to massacres of entire tribes in the Congo, the struggle for peace escapes us.
Sometimes resolutions are beyond our control, we decide; it is easier to disregard the truth that individually and collectively we hold a power to reach them. Not summoning the will to exert that power, however, abandons our humanity.
For Americans, the day is characterized by gathering with those we care about to exchange gifts, share food and drink, laugh and quarrel, watch football games and catch up with each other. Complaints about commercialism may have a measure of validity. The annual rituals of counting retail sales numbers, elbowing through crowds at shopping malls, circling endlessly for parking and gauging credit card limits against just one last purchase can dull the season's message.
Nonetheless, presenting a loved one with something that evokes a smile or that displays appreciation is to be savored. Serving a meal to the hungry, placing spare change in a kettle, sending a baseball bat to a boy who dreams of a home run in Yankee Stadium or a set of clothing to a long out-of-work woman who has finally found a job spreads the joy.
All acts of good will -- great and small, personal and anonymous -- swell the grace of Christmas.
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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, Editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, Assistant Editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, Assistant Editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comMary Poole, Editorial Page Editor, 529-4748; mpoole@starbulletin.com
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