And So It Begins November 24th 2023

     It's the start of the season.  The Happy Season.   My favourite season.   I love the lights, the music, the food,  my wife's home made egg nog.  I love the first Christmas story.  I love Christmas movies like Scrooge, Home Alone, Last Christmas.  I even love some of the Harlequin formula movies...... one of them features my cousin's daughter Tess.  I love fruit cake.  I love the dickens out of Christmas.  I love the Dicken's Christmas for that matter.  I think I have made my point 

   And then there is the other side:   The season of too much.  The season of too expensive.  The season of expectation that inevitably has some kind of let down at some point.  The season of togetherness that is oh so lonely for so many.   And seriously?  I know all those things about Christmas.  But the Happy Season trumps all of them.   I spent a couple of Christmases alone.  Working.   Serving those who were having an unhappy Christmas.   Even in those circumstances,  I found something beautiful in the season.   I have stories about some of those nights. ..... but they are for another time.  This Christmas has its own set of highs and lows.  Problems and solutions.  And unlike just about nothing I have ever done before,  I want to live in the present.

    We live in a most unhappy universe these days.  We got through a Pandemic.  A pandemic that claimed so many lives.  Lives of people like me who are seniors.  People (again like me) with compromised immune systems.  A pandemic that somehow became a political football.  That turned anyone with a computer  and without a lab into some kind of medical science expert.   A pandemic broke up families and made neighbours strangers.  That bankrupt some businesses while others made out like bandits.   A pandemic that has had its effects on so many who were shut in without supports or company for a very very long time.  I am afraid the pandemic has left us all angry.   It has left us all pointing fingers at one another.  And the anger has spread into issues that has polarized just about everything in our society.  Thank heavens for people who aren't politically motivated.  For people who aren't frightened of those without.  Those who live Christmas every day.  

   My family, of whom I am so absolutely proud, has lived the Christmas spirit for months on end this year.  I am never sure exactly what I am allowed to say on this topic.  What is an intrusion on what is not my story to tell.   But I do want to share some things that delight me and disappoint me.  So here goes.

    I have two new grand children.  Two beautiful foster children that were turned over to my Daughter and son in law last March.  Turned over only hours after Social Services contacted my family.  Without record checks or home inspections.   Those things have since been done.    But dealing with Social Services has been an eye opener.  It is a constant fight that has placed my Children in a roll where they are protecting these children from a system.  A system that is so broken.   In spite of the failures of this system,  I have watched these two new little people grow in so many ways.   Just like the rest of my family,  I have grown to love them like our own.  I love to feed them,  to hold them to watch them play.  And I am so in awe of my daughter, my son in law, and their siblings who have supported them in the most basic and necessary ways.   

   It is very easy to blame the government for everything.   Either government really.  But there comes a time one has to realize that the government is the people.  In order to perpetuate itself,  a government as often as not has to cater to the wants of the people.  Doesn't matter if it is beneficial near as much as if it's popular.   And like my old friend Roy used to say:  Every time you point a finger,  there are three pointing back at you.   And from the realization that the government is giving us what they think we want,  I have come to a sobering conclusion.

   Our governments will always cater to those who vote.  People with a fixed address.  People with a middle class income or higher.  People who can pay for groceries, and mortgages, and rent, and warm clothes,  and transportation.   People who become upset when they can pay for all those things but may not have money for  vacations and treats and dinners and movies and the good scotches.    Those on the street with mental health issues, addiction issues, who have been brought into the world without the support of a family in a warm house with a stocked fridge?  Those people don't get to the polls.  They don't phone in talk shows.  And as a result,  the needs of those in need will likely never be addressed by those we elect.   

    Jesus never ran for an office.  I don't know if Jesus ever celebrated Christmas.   He didn't bring positive economic results to the merchants, and wealthy.  He concentrated on those who didn't have,  well,  jobs or food, or medical care.  He instructed those who adored him to give all they own to the poor and to follow him.   He was a carpenter in early life but he gave up his job and lived off the generosity of those who followed him.   He was a king who didn't live like one.  And in the end,  where did that get him?

    This week is the kickoff to the Holiday Season.  For me it's the Christmas season,  but I really am not offended if we use an inclusive term like Holiday season.   Because of my Christian upbringing, it feels good to throw a loony in the Sally Ann kettle.  To drop a toy in the community giving box.  To share something with the food bank.  I don't know if I have the warewithall to provide the real gift.  The gift of a visit.  The gift of inclusion.  The gift of time.   And in reality,  what could be more important that actually providing some company to someone who is alone?   I guess you could say I am not my children.   Yup.  We are at that point in our lives where the children become the example.    Merry Christmas,  Season's Greetings,  Happy Holidays.   And so it begins.