Real Christmas

There’s much in this life that is beyond my control. In fact the list of things that I can control is a short one, the list of those I can’t is not.

Life gets confusing and scary and overwhelming…I feel unworthy when things get good, and unaccepting when they get bad. All in all I’m a normal man, living a slightly eccentric but very real life. The one thing that I’ve got, that many other men have not, is my love of Christmas.

Like a warm bed on a cold winters night, Christmas comforts me, soothes me and frees me from the bondage of self. I’m not sure when it began, this love, but it’s been with me for many years and I intend to keep it, hold it, cherish it until God takes me to meet the man who’s birthday the day celebrates, the founder of our feast.

Many people discuss when the Christmas season begins for them. It never begins for me, as it never ends, it just always is. The lights and decorations get put back in the basement, the radio stations stop playing the music, the crowds leave the malls, many folks turn and leave their churches knowing that twelve months will need to pass before they return. They forget what the season means until it comes round again. I don’t. Forget the season I mean. I’m not affiliated with a church at the moment but the spirituality that is Christmas is with me every day. Jesus is with me, although I’d never dream of forcing him on anyone else. Attraction rather than promotion seems a much better plan. His birthday is the reason for the season for me but that’s not to say that I don’t love the rest of it too!

Some days leave me without another drop to give. Life gets the better of me and I’m exhausted. But for me, nothing perks me up more that to listen to a Christmas album on my ride home…Sure the sight of this six-foot-three, two-hundred and twenty pound man climbing into his truck and listening to Christmas music in July is an odd one, but the comfort that it brings me makes my life whole again, and makes the lives of those I might come in contact with better too because I smile, wish them a good day and say a small prayer that they are protected in their lives as well.

I love the lights and the decorations. I love to give and get presents. I love cookies and cakes. I love my family, especially around Christmas. I love our traditions and memories of Christmases past and I especially love the feeling in the air in December. The cool, crisp days, the children excited and on best behavior, the Santa’s in the stores and on street corners ringing bells and collecting change. I love all of it!

In some ways it’s an escape, this Christmas I love. It clears my head, fills my heart, connects me with my God. To carry that all year long, to me, is not eccentric but rather a form of worship, a form of prayer, a way of life. Kenny Rogers once sang “keep the spirit in your heart and it’s Christmas everyday”. No wiser words have ever been written, no truer sentiment ever offered. It is this man’s opinion that world might be a better place if we all did what Kenny sings about, all kept the spirit and all loved one another a little bit more.

Although it has never put a stich of gold in my pocket, I say God bless it, and God bless you!

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The Christmas season has passed, but for some Torontonians controversy over a holiday icon remains. Since the late 1800s the red Salvation Army kettle and its faithful Salvation Army worker or volunteer have been picturesque reminders that some would go without warm clothing, meals or place to sleep if it were not for the generous contributions of passersby. In Toronto’s South St. Jamestown area, The Salvation Army’s five kettles’ receipts go directly to that community’s social needs through the Sally Ann’s Rose Avenue Warehouse Mission.

It all started when an editorial contributor to “Xtra,” a Toronto gay news community newspaper published a December 21st story titled “Don’t get burned by the kettle—Sally Ann not a gay-friendly group.” For Ron Farr and his wife Linda, both Salvation Army officers and clergy, this was a story that hit close to home in several ways:

First, because the much-needed community social services they provide discriminate against no one. “When someone walks through our door, the only questions we ask are: ‘do you need a warm dinner or a place to stay’. It’s never been any different, and Linda and I wouldn’t be doing this work if it were” Farr explains.

Second, because Farr’s youngest son is gay.

It’s hard to take up this controversy, even during the un-Christmas-like month of February. But what good does it do one cause to turn on another?

You can read more about this ugly bit of Christmas news at this link.

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