Hmmm, it does not look much like Christmas when I look down from my 18th floor window. The hope for a white Christmas appears to be a long shot. It seems Old man Winter is reluctant to take hold. Perhaps he is a bit weary from protecting his turf against global warming.
But looking west in the gap between apartment buildings I can see a corner of the Bramalea City Center parking lot. A steady stream of cars is flowing like a river along the outer road. Inside, no doubt, last minute shoppers are scurrying and jostling like salmon fighting their way upstream to breed.
I’ve completed all my preparations and now have leisure to turn my mind to a few Christmas wishes for this madcap world of ours.
I wish that there was no need for soldiers to spend the holiday season in a foreign land away from their families. I salute them for their willingness to do so and for the sacrifice they are making to protect our freedoms. But I wish we didn’t need them to stand guard on Christmas day. My wish is for a pandemic of peace to break out and spread like wildfire.
I wish that no one had to spend Christmas day at a movie theatre because they have no family with whom to gather round the table. Yes, movie theatres are open on Christmas day. I wish it were not so.
I wish that the automated banking network was not pushed to the limit of its bandwidth. The joy of gift giving and receiving is a blessing. But the millions of dollars that are spent can overshadow that simple joy. I wish that the gift of spending time together was enough.
I wish that there were no people wondering if they will make it through to Christmas before they take their last breath. Cancer haunts the lives of far too many. I wish for a cure for this dreaded disease so none will have to succumb to it.
I wish that I could listen to Christmas songs on the radio and not have to hear how a certain artist makes $400,000 every year just from the royalties of the Christmas song he wrote and recorded. As naïve as it may be, I wish that wealth could be evenly distributed and our worth not measured by dollar increments.
I wish that we could strip away all the distractions, slow down, breath deep and contemplate the realreason for the season. Whatever your religion, or your system of beliefs, I wish that Christmas day could be on the one day of the year that we put aside our differences and celebrate our common humanity.
Christmas metaphors come in many forms. But they are only the window dressing. This Christmas let us rise as one from every corner of the globe and wish for but one thing – brotherly love from ocean to ocean, from continent to continent, from earth to sky and everything in between.
Merry Christmas and God bless.
~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.comor the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog. Visit www.smashwords.com to download a free preview of the e-book version.
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Tags: blessing · Christmas · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · wishNo Comments