by Paul Edwards
You must indulge me! Actually you don’t have to. You can choose not to read this. What I should probably say is that my December message, as it has been wont to be in the past, is a mite strange. This time it is a series of little pieces that I have thrown together to make you think about the season.
A few of my very oldest friends may remember a tape I made many years ago that collected Christmas music that you were unlikely to hear on the radio and that shed light on elements of
the season that get overlooked. One song on my tape is an old one written by Woody Guthrie about a Christmas party that the copper bosses turned into a conflagration, killing innocent women and children in the process. Another is a plaintive and compelling picture of people who are alone at Christmas time written and sung by Stan Rogers. The last song I will bore you with is one that many of you may remember. While Simon and Garfunkel sing “Silent Night” in the background, a news broadcast filled with man’s inhumanity to his fellows conveys a host of gruesome tidbits that are a stark contrast to the peace and joy of the song. So look for songs that speak to you at this time and pay attention to the words.
If music has always been a part of Christmas or the holiday season, so has fiction. I am saddened by the decline of Christmas fiction. Sure, there is lots that gets published but so much of the material that appears is slickly packaged and the pictures mean as much as the words. More than that, there are very few opportunities for us to find fiction for Christmas any more. Over the past few years I have read all of Dickens’ Christmas books which are, by the way, available as downloads from Project Gutenberg. They convey so much because they are first and foremost great stories and only secondarily are they about Christmas. If you have the chance, try to find “The Chimes” or “A Cricket on the Hearth” and enjoy Christmas with the Pickwicks as well.
I had actually thought for a fleeting moment that I would like to write a short, short story but just thinking about how many great stories have already been written about this season, I decided that talent ought to be a prerequisite for writing. Pure, unalloyed presumption just isn’t enough!
However, you don’t get entirely off the hook. I have written a 12-line poem about this season which is also a puzzle. There is a message hidden in the poem which I encourage you to try to
find. It’s a pretty simple little puzzle and most of you will probably solve it with no problem. It was fun to write and I hope you enjoy the puzzle and can stand the poem. I have taken enough of your busy December so I will end this message by urging all of you to take some time to think about yourselves this season. You are the most important person in your life! And now, for better or worse, here is my little poem.
December Doggerel
Holidays are fast approaching.
All of us will rush around.
Packages we’ll all be broaching
Puffed with joy by what we’ve found!
Yearning for some peace and quiet;
Needing time to stop and think;
Each of us through all the riot
Woozy from the food and drink!
Yuletide logs and Jewish candles
Each are emblems of their day
And symbolize a joy that vandals
Really cannot take away!