Christmas 2017
This past year has been good, overall, but
there’s been one too many trips to the ER for my taste. But thank God,
literally, I’m still here and those issues apparently are resolved – stay tuned
for further developments. (Like I could do something about it!)
There’s been a lot of music, merriment and
adventures with plenty of travel opportunities in the mix for me since the last
Christmas epistle. The players in this saga I call my life are much the same as
last year but of course there are some who are no longer here to visit with – I
miss them, I miss being able to call them up for a “chat and chew” and I miss
them being here in my life.
Not inclined to go into a lot of specifics
about the who and where, etc of these past twelve months but suffice it to say my life continues to be
a journey of blessings and challenges – of joys and sorrows – in other words
being fully alive to all that there is to this business of living. I hope you
can say the same.
Here’s this year’s contribution …
Are You Missing
Christmas?
The setting – Christmas Eve, Somewhere USA, a busy shopping mall, and
there just outside the revolving doors of a department store a young man strums
his guitar. He’s in his mid to late 30’s, bearded, long hair but far from
scruffy – a kind of throwback to the hippies of the late 60’s. He starts to
sing …
Let me
ask you a question
Now take
your time with your reply
Are you
missing Christmas?
Have you
let it pass you by?
About that time a middle aged man,
carrying two bulging shopping bags comes out of the store. He’s almost to the
curb when one of the bags splits open, spilling all the wrapped gifts on the
sidewalk.
“Those expletive, expletive, expletive (fill in the curse words of your choice)
bags aren’t worth a flying
expletive. If they’re gonna sell you all this crap
then they should make bags sturdy enough to hold it”. Stooping to pick up the
gifts he continues to grimace and mutter.
Having put down his guitar, the young man
walks over to the disgruntled shopper, “Can I help you with those?”
The man looks up with a scowl but upon
seeing the sincere smile simply says, “Yeah, why not. I can’t quite manage this
by myself. Guess I’ll have to go back into the exple …” Something
stops him from continuing his tirade. Later on he would wonder what it was.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that, unless you
want to. I can help you carry these to your car.”
Suspicion starts to creep into the
shopper’s eyes. And he thinks “Uh, oh, better watch out this could be some kind
of con or a set up or a … Then upon looking harder at this young hippie he
reconsiders his objections. “Hell, he says to himself, I’m an ex-Marine I could
take this kid down if I had to. Might as well take help where I can get it”.
“Okay, I can use an extra pair of hands. I
have to warn you though the car is miles away. It was the only parking place I
could find”.
The young man grins , “Not to worry, I’ve
been standing in this one place so long, I can use the exercise.”
So they start out across the crowded parking
lot, dodging holiday drivers, frantically trying to get some last minute
shopping done. There’s not much conversation on the way. Finally they approach
the shopper’s SUV.
“Well, here we are. I warned you it was a
long way over here.”
“That’s okay.” As he hands the last of the
gifts to the shopper, he speaks “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”
The shopper looks at him and thinks --
“Oh, no, here it comes he’s going to ask for money. Well, he did help me with
my stuff so I guess a couple of bucks won’t hurt. After all it is Christmas”.
“Go ahead, ask away”.
“Are you missing Christmas?”
“What?” He paused. “If you mean would I
miss Christmas if it went away then the answer is no. I’ve had it with all the
hustle and bustle – trying to find a parking place, spending money I don’t have
on gifts people don’t appreciate or need. And for what – just because it’s what
we’re supposed to do every year? Same
stupid sappy Christmas songs, same craze to have a sale on everything to get
people to come out. Worse than all that is that it now starts the day after
Hallowe’en, or so it seems to me. Me, miss Christmas? – not much I wouldn’t”.
The young man looked at the shopper with
sadness in his eyes. “I guess I have my answer though I’m always hoping to hear
something different but I rarely do.”
The shopper walked around to get into the
driver’s seat. “Now let me ask you a question. Why did you want to know?”
He lowered his eyes and shook his head. “I
keep hoping people will remember whose birthday it is and what the holiday is
supposed to be about.”
The shopper, paused before he spoke …
“Well, I’m not really a very religious man but then again neither are many of
my friends. I think that part of Christmas disappeared a long time ago. It’s
all about shopping and Santa Claus and all that.” He took a long look into the
face of the young man.
“Why should you
care whose birthday it is?”
He walked over to the where the shopper stood
and without ceremony simply held his face in his hands and said “Because it’s
mine.” And with that brief declaration he vanished.
Stunned, this foul-mouthed, middle-aged
ex-Marine got into his car and in a kind of almost drunken stupor drove home.
What had just happened? What did it mean? Who was that young man, was he …? He
let the thought trail off because the answer was too preposterous to consider.
And yet …
This encounter really happened and from now
on, at least at Christmas time, he would remember it – and maybe even remember
whose birthday it is.
A fanciful tale, to be sure, but the
question is real for all of us “Are We Missing Christmas?” Only your heart and
mine, know the answer to that.
Happy
Birthday Jesus (or if you prefer, Merry Christmas)
George Gagliardi, December,
2017
