And so this is Christmas.
And what have you done?
Another year over
A new one just begun
It’s hard not to join Mr. Lennon in those thoughts at this time of season. A new year is always something of a fulcrum in our lives, a momentary pause to look back at the ups and downs that shaped us in the past, as well as a chance to hope for better things for the year ahead.
If you’ve read this space at all in the past few months then you’re probably aware that I had a medical scare that put me in the hospital for a few days this fall.
I’m okay and I won’t dwell on it much except to say that an event like that certainly amplifies natural thoughts around now to better oneself, a remembrance to enjoy life not in broad sweeping strokes but in tiny captured moments.
It was a year of extraordinary devastation in the south, events with pleasant and harmless sounding names like Katrina and Rita wreaking incredible havoc on the lives of millions of people. Not a single drop of rain from either storm fell on any member of my family, and yet we were all touched by the hurricanes.
And we were touched by what followed, by the Herculean effort of ordinary Americans to step up and make a difference in a way that the government machine never could.
Sometimes it was little more than a sandwich, a bottle of water or a blanket, but it was a monument to the sheer force of will of human beings in general and Americans in particular to collectively grab the bootstraps and pull in unison.
You can love us or you can hate us, but rest assured.
We will survive.
Mark this next one down because you won’t see me write it often.
Turn off the TV at some point this week.
Turn off the cell phone and the computer and the pager.
Remember why it is that you are with the people you’re with.
Reconnect with someone left on the side of the superhighway that has become our lives.
Refresh yourself.
Enjoy yourself.
The ups and downs of 2006 will come, but for now, they can wait.
Merry Christmas from the Bremners!