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Holidays 2006:
By William E. Steinman:
Once again, the holiday
season is upon us. Of course, I want to wish everyone out there a happy and peaceful
season of celebration. There are many different traditions which folks with
different backgrounds will observer at this time. What they all have in common
is they are based in human spirituality. I think that diversity of approach to
spirituality is good.
In
I do not exclude myself from
the above criticism. Like most people, I have work to do. In that regard, this
is the time of year where I like to sit back and reflect on what I have done
and not done. I not only like to do it, I need to do it. What I look for are
those things I have done well and those I could have done better. In
particular, I look at my behavior toward other folks. I always find things that
I wish I had not done. These are the things I will strive to correct. Happily
enough, I also find things of which I can be proud.
One of the happy things we
did this year was to give some of our money to three different charities, for
Katrina relief and for other things. Two things came of that. First it felt
good just to be helping people. The other thing is it was educational in
noticing the response for the different charities. One of our local charities
immediately dunned me for more money. I did not respond. I will give them more
at some future time because they do good things, but I do not like being
dunned. Why do they do that? It’s self defeating. The Red Cross got the
largest contribution and they did not respond at all. It’s as though my
check went into a black hole. From the media reports, I wonder what happened to
that Katrina money. I am not convinced it was used properly at all. The
Salvation Army was the best of all. I got a nice thank you letter and no dun at
all. All in all I think our contribution did some good.
A friend recently expressed
it this way. “You never know what you are doing.” I had to agree
with him. I had been talking about my website at the time. I was wondering if
it was really having any effect on other people. We discussed cause and effect
in some detail and I made some conclusions.
When you do something good,
you really don=t know what you are doing. You do not know how far
that act will extend into the lives of others. You do not know how many
different lives that one act will eventually effect. This is likewise true when
you do something bad. You have no idea of the extend of the damage you will
cause. You have no idea of the numbers of people who will be damaged or of the
depth of that damage. In either case, the ripples go on and on and reflect
back.
Of course, you have no idea
how your acts, good and bad, will come back to you. In my own case, my
understanding of the nature of the universe convinces me that everything I do
will come back to me in kind. The questions then become, if you can do good,
why would you want to do otherwise? What do you want to come back to you?
It is a matter of some humor
among my family and friends that Wesoomi Publishing is about $90,000.00 in
arrears. We are losing money on a regular schedule. Besides bullheadedness, of
which I have a surfeit, I continue for other reasons. One of the reasons is
that I want Wesoomi to be a force for good.
I think, if you check our website
and our publications, you will find that trend to be well established. We are
trying to be a force for good. It=s so
simple, why would we want to do anything else? So, in this season especially, I
invite you to join me. It=s not difficult. You need do nothing profound. Just
thank someone, or complement someone. Just smile at the overstress store clerk.
Wish someone a good day, and mean it. It=s so
simple. Why would you not want to do it?
So, let us try to get into
the spirit of the season, whatever it means to you. For me it means pausing to
think about who and what I am. It is a chance to see people I care about but
don’t see often enough. It is a time to reflect and think about my
blessings and what I ought to be doing to earn them. It is not necessary to
believe in any particular myth to do these things. It is sufficient to be a
caring human being who wants the best for his culture and fellow men. It is
really about being polarized toward the joy of being human. If you need to be
polarized, why not try that? That is about celebrating our common values and
heritage. We are after all, all human beings. We are of the same race. We have
the same ancestors.
So let us celebrate however
we do it. This is how we do it. On Christmas day, our children and grandchildren will celebrate the holiday
in the bosom of their own home as they should. They will create their own
traditions and their own memories. There will be the warm feeling of home with
hugs a-plenty and darn good food. It will not be about gifts, though there will
be those too. The day will live in their hearts and minds as it does in ours as
a day of warmth and love.
Mrs. Gaffer and I will spend
Christmas day here together. It will be just the two of us. We will enjoy it
quietly with a fire, a simple meal, and a bottle of good wine. It will be a
good day. It will be the kind of day I wish for all people everywhere, a day of
peace and goodness. Our children with our grandchildren will come to visit us
on a day before or after Christmas. Of course the tree will be there in the
parlor with its blue lights and bells. There will also be gifts beneath the
tree. At the appropriate time, they will be distributed and opened. There will
also be the traditional dinner. This year, at our house, that will be a prime
rib roast, and all the other stuff that goes with it.
Now, with our own holiday joy
assured, I do want to wish everyone the same. I want everyone to discover, as
we have, the good concepts of this holiday season. I would like to see everyone
feeling the warmth and goodness which lurks within our hearts. I want all of us
to reach inside and find that part of us that wants only good. I want everyone
to have a holiday as good as ours will be. May the spirit of the season,
however it comes to you, dwell in your hearts and minds, now and from now on.
Whether you celebrate
Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Kwanzaa, or something else, I wish this for you:
That you home be safe and
secure;
That you have fuel for your
fire;
That you have honest work to
do;
That you and you children
have food a-plenty;
That you have someone to
love;
That you open your heart to
your neighbors;
That you take pride in
yourself, your work, and your community.
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