In Our View: Christmas brings blessings of human bonds

No matter your faith, today is America’s most significant holiday, one built on a foundation of Christian belief and tradition, but enriched by more than a century of family, charity and celebration of the human bond. And don’t forget Santa Claus!

It was way back in 1897 (oddly enough, in September, not December) when New York Sun editorial writer Francis Pharcellus Church assured Virginia O’Hanlon, 8, that yes, there is a Santa Claus, despite her friends being “affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.”

“He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus,” Church wrote.

“It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.”

Too often that human ability to acknowledge love, share generosity and demonstrate our devotion is swallowed up by our differences. We argue about President Trump and Nancy Pelosi, about how much car license tabs should cost, or about how many bridges should span the Columbia River between Clark County and Portland. Certainly there is room for healthy debate in our free society, but regrettably the differences often become too personal and too deep.

At some Christmas dinner tables today, these differences apparently will be gulfs. Over the last few years, the internet has been filled with advice about how to get along with people at family gatherings. A Google search for the words “Christmas” and “hostility” yields more than 7.9 million results. And while there has been family strife since the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, it seems like it is overly emphasized today.

Perhaps we need a little more of Santa throughout the year, or at least the acknowledgement of the good things we accomplish together. In our community, people are hungry. But this month we donated 276,200 pounds of food, enough for 230,183 meals through the Walk & Knock Food Drive. In our community, people are living outdoors. But last winter, local volunteers spent 11,237 hours to staff the Winter Hospitality Overflow shelters, providing a warm, dry bed to 691 adults and 72 children over 151 nights. In our community people are hurting. But in 2017-18, 492 volunteers gave 17,584 hours of care at the Free Clinic of Southwest Washington.

Not just the most vulnerable people benefit. Our children reap the benefit of a free, high-quality public education. We all benefit from knowledgeable medical professionals and the care they provide. When we need help, we benefit from our network of emergency responders. We benefit from an economic system that allows us to be financially generous today.

Could all of these things be improved? Yes. But we will need to work together to achieve our goals.

So as we open our material gifts today, let’s also vow to give spiritual gifts: forbearance, tolerance, generosity. Let’s strive to spread and sustain these gifts in the new year.

Or, in Church’s words, “No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”

On that optimistic note, we wish you a Merry Christmas.