“So, this is Christmas and what have you done? Another year over and a new one just begun.” John Lennon’s Happy Christmas, War Is Over is one of my favorite Christmas songs. Yes, I am of the age that I remember seeing the Beatles live on the Ed Sullivan show decades ago. I also remember an older sister screaming her appreciation of the Fab Four that evening while I simply wanted to retreat to another room to watch The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh on the Wonderful World of Disney.
After I spent four years in the U.S. Navy primarily to obtain the G.I. Bill, I returned to college. Because I was older than most students at Grand Valley, I was in a hurry to graduate. As a result, I attended school year-round including summer semesters. I completed my bachelor’s degree in December 1980. I was scheduled to start my first post college job after Christmas that year. While I was studying for my final exams, I got the word on WLAV, the local rock station, that Lennon was killed just outside his home in New York City.
WLAV immediately started playing Lennon’s classic Imagine. Thousands of his fans converged on New York to pay their respects and mourn together. I completed my final exams while listening to Beatles albums that December.
Whether you are celebrating Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa or any other holiday this December, may your celebrations be meaningful and joyful. Admittedly, I am a newcomer when it comes to knowledge of religious customs other than my own. Over a decade ago, I enrolled in a comparative religion course at Lake Michigan College. As a part of that course, we were required to visit a house of worship other than our own denomination. Upon inquiry, a friend graciously extended an invitation for me to attend a Jewish sabbath service. I found it a joyful experience as a group of youngsters and those in attendance sang Shabbat Shalom (or peaceful sabbath).
One of the strengths of America is our first amendment. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
We are stronger as a nation, as a country the more that we live up to that ideal. Peaceable assembly, the free exercise of religion, and freedom of the press are essential to our American way of life.
This past year has been a test of those ideals. Election years often challenge our tolerance toward one another. This election year was more challenging than most. Whether someone had a Trump or Harris sign in their lawn, they are simply exercising their freedom of speech. Surely, we should celebrate that. We are still neighbors. We are all Michiganders. And whether our candidate(s) won or lost, there is another election in two years, and another one two years after that.
Admittedly, I am finding it challenging to be optimistic this holiday season. Wars are raging in the Middle East, Ukraine, and various countries in Africa. When the news is full of images of the elderly, women, and children suffering amidst devastation in Gaza and elsewhere, it is not an image of “peace on earth and good will toward men.”
No president. No religious leader. No one can wave a magic wand and end suffering, or war, poverty, or famine.
Peace on earth and good will toward men, tolerance is demanding work. Yet, it is an ideal that our first amendment and major religions point to: the Golden Rule.
From the website Medium.com:
“Do to others what you would have them do to you,” Christianity.
“None of you [truly] believes until he loves for his brother that which he loves for himself,” Islam.
“That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah,” Judaism.
“One should not behave toward others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself,” Hinduism.
“Hurt not others with that which pains yourself,” Buddhism.
And finally, from Monticello:
“Perhaps the single thing which may be required to others before toleration to them would be an oath that they would allow toleration to others,” Thomas Jefferson.
Imagine.
No comments:
Post a Comment