"We have it in us to be lights in the darkness"

A beautiful holiday statement from my favorite blogger.

Merry Christmas to the Shebeen
We have it in us to be lights in the darkness. If we remember that, we may come through whatever comes.

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
DEC 24, 2018

“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,” returned the nephew. “Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round – apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that – as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”

—A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, 1843.

Later in the story, the Spirit of Christmas Present takes Scrooge, that covetous, grasping old sinner, on a tour of the world. They stop by a miner's hut, a lonely lifehouse, and a storm-tossed ship at sea. In each, there is light and there is music and there is joy, at least for a night and a day. We all have it in us to be lights in the darkness, to be the song rising against the gale, to be the happy toasts that defy the waves. If we but remember that—and, of course, if we stay at all times above the snake-line—I think we may come through whatever comes. And we just might rediscover the resolve and the great joy to be found in acting with justice toward all our fellow-passengers.

So, a Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Nollaig shona duit, to all friends and customers of this shebeen. And God bless us all, every one.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a25670719/merry-christmas-shebeen/?src=socialflowTW