A Life Lived: Christmas Through the Years
It’s that time again. At Christmas time in the Western world we are inundated with commercial announcements regarding this festive season. For those of us who have some religious belief, it represents a time when we can renew our Christian faith. For others Christmas doesn’t mean a thing and still for others it is a very hard time of year. It means different things to different people.
I have run the gamut with regard to Christmas over the period of my life. Some of the most wonderful times that I can remember were as a child at Christmas. For instance I remember receiving the “Big Bruiser” dump truck when I was a very young boy. At the time I felt that it was forbidden fruit because it cost $29 and I didn’t think my parents could ever afford that. Or I was told that Santa Claus didn’t have $29, it was one or the other.
45 years later that big bruiser dump truck has a place on my workbench in my farm shop. Yes after all this time I have always found it hard to get rid of that big bruiser dump truck I got as a child. On Christmas morning way back when as I rounded the corner and saw that big bruiser dump truck on the floor under the Christmas tree I couldn’t believe it. What a wonderful life!
Of course things changed, as I got older. I remember very clearly at hockey practice in Dresden learning that there may not be a Santa Claus. I remember one of my friends on the team turned to me and said something about, you don’t believe in Santa Claus do you? I remember looking at him and thinking, of course I believe there is a Santa Claus. The only problem was I was confronted with what I perceived to be an untruth and I didn’t want to believe it. So I simply said something to the extent of no I don’t believe in Santa Claus even though I did. In many ways it was like falling over the cliff but in those days that happened a lot to kids. The idea of “sensitivity “hadn’t quite reached the annals of childhood rearing.
In 1968 I had a very special Christmas. It was special because that year my family traveled to California to have Christmas with my grandparents. So there I was on Christmas morning getting my picture taken in front of my grandmothers orange tree. For a kid who had been raised in Dresden amid the snow and cold of those old Christmas days, a California Christmas was the stuff dreams are made of.
Over time Christmas for me changed. When I was at university it represented a break in the toil of studying. After that I got married and then I got divorced and Christmas seem to change forever. It didn’t have quite the same type of festive nature about it that I had always looked forward to. At the time it seemed to be such a celebration when I wasn’t all that happy myself. And for whatever reason I started to think that maybe many people in this world weren’t happy about it either.
Of course that all changed many years later. I completely transformed my life both in a personal sense and in a professional sense. Things turned around for me and Christmas became a much more festive time of the year but also one with a big responsibility to the family.
Of course in the meantime as many of you know I traveled back to Bangladesh. It was there where my life was changed completely. Simply put when you walk through a country with extreme poverty and see the depravity that humankind lives in it changes you forever. I don’t want to be a Scrooge but I can no longer look at some of the Western excesses at Christmas with a blind eye. Sometimes this time of year bothers me because I know there are so many people in need and for whatever reason God put me here.
So at Christmas time how do I rectify the vision of “big bruiser” versus some of the abject poverty I have seen on the other side of the world? I dunno. In 2009 I still find it a bit of a struggle. I guess the point is as we live our lives, at Christmas time it’s important to take some time to reflect. It’s a big world out there. Christmas should be what dreams are made of. Sometimes I just wish I could make it a little bit more equitable for everybody.