Christmas Miracle: Let's Make One - by Jorge Vargas
Christmas Miracle: Let's Make One - by Jorge Vargas
I should warn you, before you begin to read, that I will end by making of you a personal request. Dignity prompts me to warn you in advance, and courtesy requires me to share personal aspects of myself before requesting from you what you may not want to give.
The satellite image that goes with this editorial is a haunting one. I was born in a nation, I will not say which, that I can pick out easily on that satelliteimage, if only because its boundaries are etched into my soul, since there are few lights to pinpoint its location.
All thatis really visible is its capital,wherein I was born. A lone dot of light surrounded by virtual darkness.That light, and that darkness, represent one of the greatest cities, and one of the most magnificent countries, in the world.
But that satellite image defines that nation. Itdefines its past, its present, its worst fears, and its largest weakness.
More on that in a moment.
Facebook and twitter postings from friends near and far have alerted me that the Christmas season has "officially" begun, for in the United States, as in many nations around the world, Christmas begins when the stores start to worry about crowd control.
With talk of Christmas (and for those sensitive to political correctness, the holidays), people suddenly start being more civilized to each other. Whereas someone may have been selfish one moment, the next moment that person is concerned with gifts for others. Whereas a New York City driver may have dropped an "f-bomb" to his fellow conductor, he'll now settle for an "a-hole" mention which, for New York City drivers, is a major improvement.
People also start listening to tear-bringing love songs and silly holiday tunes and all-out tear-jerkers about world poverty and children and the rest of it.
Some people, and more people than we in the major cities can imagine, flock to churches and listen to priests and reverends. Of those people, a smaller number, but still a significant one, will remember the original point of Christmas.
It's a holiday for family, of course, butit was originally, and in somefamilies and in some towns and in somenations, itstill is a holiday about one family, about one child who was born in a stable because his familywas poor and no one would taken them in.
You've no doubt heard the story andhave sworn the name of that child.
You needamanipulative reminder from me, or from anyone else,as tohow poor he was andyet how princely he was, andhow much he sacrificed.
You know the story.
Back to the first thing. About the satellite image.
To a different story. To a story about a young girl who was hungry and poor. There was no romanticism to her, there was no immediate fear, no pleading, no sad eyes. There was something worse, something darker, something more inhumane than any fear or pleading or sad puppy eyes.
There was resignation and acceptance.
She was hungry and only a few yards away froma tour bus that had stopped in an open-air market on the side of a lonely road somewhere up in the mountains that are so tall that on that side of the mountains it was night, and on the other it was still day.
Her stomach was bloated and her clothes were unmistakeably poor as she said, "I'm not hungry. There's nothing to eat, so why would I be hungry?"
She did not ask for food and even refused it when offered, and she refused money as well.
The adults working in that market werejust as gracious. They were not asking for hand-outs. Theyjust wanted to sell their crafts and apologized profusely for the girl's statement, begging forgiveness for their shame, and even lowering their prices in return for dignity. Some on the tour bus evenaccepted the lower prices.
This was in those dark parts of the satellite image, far away from theillumination that could easily be Christmas lights.
The Christmas season is about what we want it to be about. That's what the preachers don't get when they say that it's about this or that. It's about everything.
It's about gifts, it's about consumerism, it's about God and Jesus and Christinaity, it's about Santa Claus and Christmas Trees and Frosty the Snowman, because it's about humanity and human beings have one trait that is shared universally: We refuse to be defined by others.
We refuse to be defined by religious leaders or political leaders, just as we refuse to be defined by lights on a satellite image.
I wrote above that there is an original point to Christmas, and that is an undeniable fact. It is also, however, not the only point to Christmas.
We each ascribe our own definitions to things and events, and we each find a point in the things we do.
Who am I to define a holiday for you, or to give it a point and a meaning for you?
Who are you to do the same for me?
Instead, I will tell you my definition, as best as I understand it, and give it my point and my meaning, in the hopes that you and I will find a point of agreement and move forward from there.
Christmas is a holiday of Christmas lights. It's a holiday in which we can spread a little bit of hope, if only because we've socially mandated it onto ourselves that it's a holiday of kindness. It's a holiday for children, not in the sense that it is immature but in the sense thatthey must be at the center of it, for nothing defines a family better than a child.
Christmas is about lighting up the world and hoping away the darkness.
Christmas is about bringing light to those darkened corners of the world in that satellite image above.
This is not political. This is not religious. This is not economic.
This is humane.
I am a human being and my fellow humans are hurting in those lands, so it is up to me to bring them some help, and it is up to you, and up to everyone else, and it is even up to them, for they are as strong and as self-sufficient as we are. All they lack is our spending power.
So, yes, I told you I would share something personal with you and I have.
Now I must ask something from you, as I promised I would above.
You have been gracious, thus far, in reading my words, and I humbly ask that your graciousness go beyond this article.
I am asking you to give, but everyone is asking you to give.
So, instead, I will ask you to give in such a way that it becomes automatic and easy for you to give.
I will ask you to give $1 for every $50 that you spend during this holiday season. Whether you spent that $50 on gifts or on holiday parties or on travel for the holidays, so long as they were spent under the banner of the holidays, regardless of which holiday you celebrate, I ask that you then donate $1 of that to the charity of your choice.
Whether it is to help the poor or whether it goes to a house of worship, for they will re-route it to the poor for you, or whether you donate it to disease research, or to education. It is your choice.
All I ask is that you give.
Why?
Because if the average person spends $500 on the holidays, then that person would donate only $10, but if only 100 people do that, then we've already donated $1,000.
It's time fora Christmas miracle, so why not make one ourselves?
Why not bring Christmas lights to those places and to those people who need them?
Why not be the Christmas lights themselves, regardless of what religion we ascribe to?
That is my request to you, and rest assured that I will do it myself, for I never ask of others what I can't do myself.
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