Give a home for the holidays

MICHELE MARR

I have lived places where it gets cold; this city isn’t one of them.

Still, the other morning, while driving across town, I listened to

a weatherman complain about how cold it was when it wasn’t even

winter. It made me laugh.

A few blocks down Beach Boulevard, while waiting at a traffic

light, I watched a man cross the street. It had clearly been a while

since he had bathed or had a haircut. He was wearing so many layers

of clothing he looked a lot like one of those stumpy, over-bundled-up

kids on South Park.

As I watched him, I found myself re-thinking cold. Fifty-four

degrees isn’t cold if you have a warm bed to sleep in, a decent coat

and square daily meals.

But as I watched this man move stiffly up Beach Boulevard, I

became painfully aware of how much better a standard of living my

puppy enjoys than this man and some 34,997 other men, women and

children in Orange County.

My puppy Fielder has a couple warm beds. He lives indoors with my

husband and I. When his God-given coat is too thin for the climate,

we supplement it with blankets. And heat. Fielder never wonders where

his next meal is coming from.

Thirty-four thousand nine hundred ninety-eight. That’s the number

of homeless in Orange County according to a survey, conducted by Info

Link in Irvine, of all agencies, public and private, that serve the

homeless.

I bet they’re not dreaming of a white Christmas.

Just before Thanksgiving a reader, Dee Wallace, e-mailed me the

URL for the Web site (www.spiritualityhealth.com) of “Spirituality &

Health.” A feature on its homepage titled “Practicing Thanks-giving,”

offered 26 ways -- one for each day in November, through Thanksgiving

-- to offer thanks for the blessings we enjoy.

Its introduction quoted G.K. Chesterton, the 20th Century writer

and Catholic apologist, who described his primary aim in life as

“taking things with gratitude and not taking things for granted.”

Many of the feature’s suggestions meant to heighten our awareness

of and appreciation for the many blessings in our lives. One, for

example, proposed, “Take time to enjoy something you own but have

ignored ... express your gratitude [by] using it.”

Others were centered on sharing our blessings with others: “Send a

check to a charity or nonprofit organization with a note mentioning

... the good work they are doing.”

The work and needs of such organizations seem most glaring during

these days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Contributions to them,

in time and money, typically go up. Yet their needs, and the needs

they serve, remain throughout the year.

What happens to our compassion, our generosity, once Christmas is

over?

While rummaging through some neglected newspapers a few days ago,

I noticed a Pat Oliphant cartoon in the Los Angeles Times. It

pictured our president, in a cowboy hat, seated at a table beneath a

sign, “Now Hiring.” Across from him sat Jesus, applying for a job.

In a flurry of words above his head, Bush asked, “[Could you] meet

our right-wing standards? Do you believe in the merging of church and

state? Do you hate gays? Are you a right-to-lifer? Are you opposed to

stem cell research? Do you believe the earth is flat?” To which Jesus

rubs his bearded chin and replies, “Oh, dear.”

During his earthly ministry, Jesus had few words for issues of

church and state, among them, “Render ... to Caesar the things that

are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Matt. 22:21

From the New Testament, it’s hard to glean the notion that Jesus

hated anyone, even those folks who made him livid, which some did.

The right to life? Jesus invariably stood for life. Life, not its

destruction, was the essence of his ministry. It’s the heart of the

Gospel, expressed by him in John 3:16.

“God loved the world so much that he gave his only [begotten] Son,

so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal

life.”

The incarnation of that Son is what Christmas remembers: Christ

the savior.

As I set out a triptych, creche-style Advent calendar on Dec. 1,

it struck me that most of the characters, who will populate its Near

East landscape between now and Christmas, will appear in a rather

backward order. Shepherds and shepherdesses will be the first to

appear, followed by angels, a sheep, three magi, a donkey, a camel,

and a cow. At last, will come Joseph, Mary and Jesus.

It reminded me of the Christmas quiz I offered readers last year.

Several readers have recently e-mailed me requesting a copy of the

quiz. If you want a copy, just let me know.

The quiz is on the order of events related to Jesus’ birth, the

nativity Bible story so familiar to us. If you take the quiz you’re

likely to discover, like so many others have, how much of the story

we believe is drawn from Scripture isn’t. It’s the stuff of legends

and carols.

Right now, most of us are working hard in preparation for

Christmas, buying gifts -- perhaps sewing, crafting or baking --

smitten by what is often called “the spirit of Christmas.”

Howard Thurman, a minister and civil right leader, thought of the

spirit of Christmas this way:

“When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky

is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are

back with their flock, the work of Christmas begins: To find the

lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the

prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among the brothers

and sisters and to make music in the heart. Let us be about the work

of Christmas.”

Let’s.

* MICHELE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She

can be reached at [email protected].