We're Not Sending Cards

NMB, Florida December 23, 2001 A.H. Schectman

THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.

WE'RE NOT SENDING CARDS THIS CHRISTMAS
This is not actually precise. WE did not send out cards over the years.
Carol wrote them, addressed and stamped them and I merely licked the
envelopes and mailed them. Carol's month long stay in the hospital getting
fitted out with new knees kept her from her usual task and few cards have
gone out this "holiday" season.

I like the idea of communicating. Sending out cards on holidays with
pre-written good wishes and nice thoughts is a fine way to find out who your
friends are. Most of us have found that friendship has nothing to do with
it. Your friends know you love them. Most of us have found out that we
send cards to compulsive card writers and are egged on by the manufacturers
of cards and the postal system.

While we are not sending out cards this Christmas I do wish to make a
statement about the holiday. It is not a "HOLY" day. It has been
commercialized and standardized to the point where we do it by rote and
without any of the real feelings that being "home for the holidays"
engender. Personally, I have long ago realized that if I want my kids to be
home for the holidays I would have to go to their homes and in our situation
this is not in the "cards".

Family, friends, comrades and people whom we see every day at work or at
our various tasks know we wish them all the best. We love and respect them
and want only what is good for them. We hurt when they hurt and we celebrate
their successes. They are really extensions of our family and life is good
that we have such a continuous connection with a great number of these
members of our family. It hurts to be so far from some of them.

I think we have about us all the things Adam and Eve saw in their Garden.
In the midst of the dust of life we have the glimmer of the wonder of living
with all the good things we can create. We see these through the debris
created by others who live to hurt us - but we go on.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.
Carol's Evaluation:10 out of 10.