Saturday - January 03, 2009

 Oh-nine, be gentle

Happy New Year.  We hope. 

2008... let's see... unemployment, breast cancer, more unemployment, new college bills, ravaged retirement funds, skyrocketing credit debt.  Finally, all of this resolutely tucked away to make room for the Christmas spirit.  Somewhat subdued this year, focus on family.

Dog and all, heading for the state of sunshine and relatives, the year appeared to be winding down with a positive note, all warm and cuddly.  

Then, the Grinch struck.

December 20th.  Sleeping snugly in a hotel room with sparsely packed overnight bags. The van sat across the parking lot - busting full of clothes, personal electronics, books and Christmas presents shamefully beyond the budget.  After a sweet night's sleep, morning brought the nightmare to light: a gaping hole where the window should be, and inside, just four Christmas stockings and a container of dog food saving the emptiness from completion.

A shower of tiny glass nuggets covered the naked interior from dashboard to tailgate with glittering shards of nothingness.  Melodies of Whoville floated through the shock of surreality.  

Merry Christmas, indeed.

Beyond the stormy loss of carefully selected gifts and cherished personal items, sharp lessons engraved the scene:  How the season of wonder turned into a lesson on evil for an eight year old girl.  How she got down on her knees to pray for "the robbers".  How a nineteen year old son and his mother took turns cleaning glass and thawing hands, bleeding.  How mom found a new strength in her son as he comforted her.

The final days of 2008 stumbled along in jarring juxtapositions... periods of Christmas joy and the warmth of family broken by occasional chills from the trauma of victimization and loss.

Finally, it's finished.  

And now you are here.  2009.  Please be kind.  Be gentle.  We are bruised and battered, but not beaten.  Still harboring joy and love and hope in our hearts: these gifts of the spirit can't be stolen in a single night.  With these gifts, and a busload of faith, we'll get by.

The rest?  It's pretty much just stuff.  

And you know the story of stuff, don't you?