Tidings of the season

Kids do say, and write, the darndest things.

That is on full display inside the pages of this week’s edition of The Star.

Inside, children have submitted their letters to Santa Claus, or Clause, depending on preference, providing gentle instructions about their hopes for Christmas ahead.

There are visions of candy and toys and games and dolls.

The latest fads or attractions are on display, from the newest Wii to Nintendo’s DS or the X-Box 360 to Justin Bieber and the newest Barbie dolls.

But in those letters there is also the humanity of the season, as only un-jaded children seem able to express.

There is much wondering about how Santa and Mrs. Claus, as well as the elves and Rudolph and the other reindeer are doing. Are they keeping up and warm?

How are things, generally, at the North Pole?

There is much warmth and thanks for all Santa does, all that his elves accomplish and the presents they spread around the world.

There is much hope of a safe journey for the merry man and his reindeer.

Plenty of children will be leaving cookies and milk to sustain Santa on his journey, some carrots or hay provided for Rudolph and the hoofed ones.

One child even noted that Santa ought to use the front door since the child didn’t believe the jolly man would fit through the chimney. Another just suggested magic for entry.

Amidst the requests for presents, the queries after Santa’s well-being, however, there is also a jolt of the times in which we live.

A number of children emphasized that while they would like some toys or games, they sure hope Santa will remember those who aren’t as fortunate.

Children also toss in requests for mom and dad and sister and brother, providing hopes that the entire family will enjoy a Christmas – a fishing pole for dad, a new fridge for mom, bike for sister so she will stop aggravating her brother.

Several also write, after listing their Christmas wishes, that if Santa can’t bring them their hoped-for goodies, well, that is okay.

They will understand.

Several, in a melding of themes only a child can accomplish, also ask Santa to say “hello” or “Happy Birthday” to the baby Jesus as he passes through.

To read through those pages filled with the thoughts and desires of these children aged two and above serves to wipe the Grinch right out of your heart and soul.

For some.

There is also, unfortunately, a darker hue to the Christmas season, reasons within and beyond control that will eclipse the joy and make this the toughest time of the year.

Whether they have sustained the stunning tragedy of death in their family during the year, whether they have lost their jobs, whether they buckle under the stress of the holiday, they often feel apart from much of the world this time of the year.

The county’s unemployment rate chronically skirts near 10 percent, levels not seen since the closing of the paper mill in 1998, and that percentage only counts those still looking in a local economy of little relief.

Hundreds will rely on the effort and energy of volunteers to consume a warm Christmas meal this week, just as more than 700 relied on that same generosity of spirit to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal.

Families will be anxious and sad about the deployment of their sons and daughters in uniform, joy elusive until their return from a war that rages on.

There is a palpable angst, a turbulence that seems, for many, to be too much.

Many people are simply overmatched by the festiveness of the holiday season, not seeing or believing there is much to celebrate.

There is a reason that Dec. 25, Dec. 26 and Jan. 1 rank as the top three dates on the calendar each year for cardiac episodes resulting in death.

In a way, though, the struggles of some folks, and the response of many others, ground us, help remind us what this holiday is about, whether manifested in the volunteers who devote their Christmas to reaching out and feeding others, providing bicycles for children of needy families or toys to youngsters whose trees, if the trees are even up, are bare.

For shining through those letters inside this newspaper is the message of the season.

That message is not driven by the newest Barbie or dirt bike or Nintendo game, but by understanding the root of the holiday.

While Christmas is supposed to be about the birth of a baby who would change the world; it is really about the philosophy attached to that person who strode the earth more than 2,000 years ago.

That philosophy is one centered on simple humanity, in treating others as you would like to be treated, the Golden Rule.

There was no room for the money-changers of his time, no inheritance for the powerful, but only a place for those who understood that we are all human beings, none any better than the next.

A man who believed turning the other cheek a virtue, extending a hand to fellow man a responsibility, a calling.

It is a theme common to most monotheistic religions, a theme of nurturing the common good, of preaching non-violence and peace, of being a citizen of the world, giving rather than taking, of simple justice and the utter lack of any sense of entitlement to anything in this life.

In that spirit, the staff here at The Star wishes all of our wonderful readers a peaceful, healthy, restful and blessed holiday season.

May you find the gift of your desires this holiday season, be it a game, a toy or simply the desire to be a better person or the will of transformation for a better life in 2012.

Merry Christmas.