Someday at Christmas

A personal kindness

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Tis the season for reflection, and I re-immersed myself in the teachings of Charles Dickens this month. He wrote from his life experience, having to support his family as a child working ten-hour days in despairing factory conditions, while his dad served time in a debtor’s prison. That lived experience resulted in works of wonder, thematically mandating a celebration of decency.

In 1844, William Makepeace Thackeray wrote of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol:

“Who can listen to objections regarding such a book as this? It seems to me a national benefit, and to every man or woman who reads it a personal kindness.”

We don’t speak of kindness enough — or poetry or decency — but we should.

On this Christmas morning, I just wanted to give a quick note of thanks for the community we built, the love that we share, and to remind each of you that empathy will be our super power moving forward. Currently, we are living in the shadows of things that have not yet happened. It is what we collectively do that will determine how quickly we re-emerge in the light.

Allow Stevie Wonder’s words of peace to guide us in this moment:

Someday at Christmas, men won't be boys
Playing with bombs like boys play with toys
One warm December, our hearts will see
A world where men are free

And some day at Christmas, there'll be no wars
When we have learned what Christmas is for
When we have found out what life is really worth
Then there will be peace on earth

Someday all of our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you or for me
But someday at Christmas time

And someday at Christmas, there'll be no tears
All men are equal and no men have fears
One shining moment my heart ran away
From the world that we live in today

And someday at Christmas, men will not fail
Take all because your love will prevail
Someday in a new world that we can only start
With hope in every heart

And someday all of our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you or for me
But someday at Christmas time

Well, there will be peace on earth
I said there will be peace on earth

Lyrics by Stevie Wonder, 1967

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Begin each day with a grateful heart.

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Bob Cratchit carries Tiny Tim in this illustration from the 1843 Charles Dickens novel A Christmas Carol.