Christmas Day

The following is excerpted and paraphrased from the editorial page of our local newspaper. It certainly causes one to pause and contemplate ........


Love and Fear.
Sages from different religious and philosophical traditions agree that these are the two poles around which everything moves. It's interesting then that one of the most beloved Christmas speeches in the Christian tradition opens with the words, "Fear not." Good words in troubled times, whether or not religion is part of your life.

The measures of fear and love can be applied to all things, really, in an attempt to understand motivation, both personal and public. While Christmas is a celebration of love in the absence of fear - an unqualified declaration that everything is as it should be - it becomes for many a trial to be endured. This Christmas, in that blessed few hours after the rush is over, there are good questions to ask. What causes the trial? Is it love? Or is it fear? Is it fear of disappointing our loved ones that drives us to fret about the gifts we buy? Is it fear or love in action when we spend more than we have to live up to the standards someone else set for our families?

And what of the deeper questions we will face in the months ahead?

Never in the experience of the current generation has there been so much economic uncertainty going into a new year. What roles will love and fear play as we move forward? Which will rule us?

"For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people ... "

Rarely have more hopeful words been written, yet they can and have become violently divisive through dogmatic disputes of our choosing. What drives those disputes, and other religiously motivated divisions and violence across the full spectrum of belief? Love? Or fear? This is the acid test of awareness for all things going forward, religious, secular, political, social. It may be of great value as we all face the trial ahead.

"... and on earth, peace, good will toward men."

Merry Christmas to all.

Grandpa out .....