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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-12-23, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1986^ Precious, priceless gifts Peace on earth begins at home Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his beautiful Christmas Carol “I heard the Bells on Christmas Day” expresses despair when he hears the bells ring out the wish of ‘‘peace on earth, goodwill to men,” because he feels there is no peace on earth (the carol was written during the American Civil War). It is easy to feel the same kind of despair for peace these days. The tension between East and West, the intrigue around a vicious war in the Middle East, the turmoil in Central America, the ultimate threat of global destruction from nuclear holocaust. In such huge affairs we feel so helpless to make any difference in changing the world. But the same human failings that cause international competition and tension are at work in our everyday lives. Local municipal politics, service groups, even church groups can be filled with petty bickering, jealousy and competition. We can use the virtue of standing up for what we believe as an excuse to say hateful, hurtfulthingsaboutthosewho don’t agree with us. We are as guilty in our everyday life of destroying peace on earth as Ronald Reagan and Michel Gorbachev. It’s only a matter of scale. We can never really hope to have peace on earth until we can cure the minor wars and skirmishes in our own relationships with others. Despite his despair, Longfellow tells, how the Christmas bells finally cheered him. ‘ ‘The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good-will to men.” Such is the message of Chri.stmas: that hope springs eternal, that we can discover peace on earth. Christmas is the time for us to each do our little part. Dickens' Christmas still alive today The story of Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchet and Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ classic ‘ ‘A Christmas Carol” seems quaint and unreal to most people these days, even if we do still love it for its sentiment. The days of Dickens seem long gone. Children, after all, aren’t sent into the mines to pull coal carts anymore. People aren’t expected to work 12-hours a day, six days a week. We pride ourselves in Canada on not having a class-ridden society as England did (and still does to a large extent). We don t seem to have masses of people living in grinding poverty. W alk through a city like Toronto for instance, and you see wealth only a king could have envisioned in Dickens’ day. Shops filled with expensive crystal and gold and clothes of silk and satin. MacLean’s magazine recently had a large article showing the wealthy middle class gift giver may be spending $1,000 for jewellery or other trinkets for this Christmas. But a Toronto radio station has undertaken a project with a local dry-cleaning chain to get coats for the children who aren’t properly clothed in winter because their parents can't afford it. Last year the partnership received, cleaned and distributed 30,000 used children’s coats and it wasn’t nearly enough. Imagine, 30,000 children in an affluent city like Toronto who are so poor their parents can’t afford to clothe them. Here in Huron, the Family and Children’s Services operates a Christmas Bureau to receive gifts and items of clothing to be given out to disadvantaged families. Last year 300 families were helped and if anything the Huron county economy is even worse this year. Imagine 300 families: that’s enough to populate a village the size of Blyth or Brussels. The problem is that the cost of living, the cost of things like housing and heat, has become so high that for people without the high incomes of middle class, providing things like food and clothing become a problem. There are people who argue that the current shakeout in farming is necessary because we have a too high-cost agriculture system, a system that has come to depend on high income in order to offset high expenses. But our whole society has become a high expense society. People earning 30, 40 and 50 thousand dollars a year (sometimes with both husband and wife both earning those figures) can afford to bid up the cost of houses and apartments, but it is the people on the low end of the scale who get caught. The main difference between our time and Dickens’ is a matter of scale. In A Christmas Carol the number of rich was a small proportion ofthe population. Today with a wealthy professional middle class the number of rich people is much larger. All that really means, however, is that it is easier to ignore the poor or to blame them for their own proverty. At Christmas all of us who are parents think of our children in a special way. We tend to step back from the everyday battles of child-rearing and take a real look at our children. Sometimes we wish we could give them really special things at Christmas. I wrote this column many years ago in Village Squire magazine. The child is bigger now, but the thoughts are the same. BY KEITH ROULSTON He went to bed hollering and screaming, fighting to the last possible second the end of another day. He hurls his little body full blast all day long, going from one adventure to the next, sometimes at a rate that has his body travelling faster than his feet with painful results. He’s always travelling faster than his mother can keep up with. But by now he’s just a cuddly little 30-pound bundle of love, snuggled in one corner of his crib. So innocent. So sweet. So peaceful. So young. Two years old and a whole lifetime ahead. The television these days, spouts a never ending list of suggestions for Christmas for this precious young bundle, all shining and new and guaranteed to break down within a week, if not sooner. But if I could put the gifts on my Christmas list that I’d like to give him no matter what the price, 1 wouldn’t include any of these. My gifts would be free, but would be priceless. To you my son this Christmas, 1 would give the gift of always being able tosce the world as the exciting place you find it now. So many of us grown old before our time, seeing only the sameness and dullness, missing altogether the fascinating things that take place around us all the time. We look at a field of hay and see just a field of hay, not the beauty of the clover blossom, not the hard work of the honey bee, pollinating the flowers, not the magic of the butterly flitting over the green surface, not the sound of the wind, rustling between the stalks. We grow used to things and take them for granted, and turn our fascinating world into a dull one. 1 hope you, my son, will be one of the fortunate few whowill remain alive to the excitement of the world as you grow to manhood. To you my son this Christmas I would give the gift of love. May you always be able to give love as fully as you do now when you throw your chubby arms around my neck in a hug that nearly breaks a vertebrae. May you always be open to receiving love, just as you are now, to being able to put your full trust in someone you love, not holding back in fear of being betrayed. And may you have the good fortune to have that love and faith rewarded by someone who honours that faith, and returns love freely. To you my son this Christmas, I would wish thatyou may always keep that openess that now leads you to tell your mother all your deepest thoughts. What a better world this would be if people could truly communicate, not holding back for fear of being ridiculed or misunderstood. To you my son this Christmas, I would like to give the knowledge that in a world where everything seems to have a price tag, where a few more dollars will supposedly bring happiness, the best things in life are free. Never get caught up in Letter to the editor Biter says THE EDITOR, 1 would like to thank all my good friends and neighbours who made Biter Days such a success for me. Special thanks to the Londesboro Lions who led the wav and everyone else who helped with the fashion show, baking pies and food, donations, the auction, the variety show, the card games and dance. It will be a weekend long to be remembered. [640523Ontario Inc.] Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Published weekly in Brussels, Ontario P.O.Box152 P.O.Box429, Brussels, Ont. Blyth, Ont. N0G1H0 N0M1H0 887-9114 523-4792 Subscription price: $15.00; $35.00foreign. Advertising and news deadline: Monday2p.m. in Brussels;4p.m. in Blyth Editor and Publisher: Keith Roulston Advertising Manager: Beverley A. Brown Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968 the world to the point where you abandon the real things in search of the fantasies. A beautiful sunset will always be more precious than the most expensive painting and a seat under a tree on a hilltop worth far more than the most expensive piece of furniture. No money can buy music as rich as the wind sighing through pine needles or as relaxing as the lap of waves stroking a beach. Often in the hectic modern world, you’ll be tempted to forget these things, but my hope is that you would always be able to find the time to stop and rediscover the importance of na­ ture, and put your life in tune with its rhythms. Toyou my son on Christmas. 1 would give the knowledge that truth is one of the most important words in the English vocabulary. May you always be truthful to yourself as to others because if Continued on Pg. 38 thanks me van is paid for and the electric wheel chair will help me to get around especially outside and at ball games, as I’m considered a quadriplegic. 1 went to Toronto Dec. 15 to be assessed to see what special equipment is needed for me to drive the van. Hopefully. 1 will soon really be on the road again. THANKS AGAIN, RON NESBITT.