Originally published in the Grand Island Independent December 21, 2002
Past Columns |
With temperatures in the high 60s and under a warm bath of sunshine, I took to the backyard on Sunday afternoon and lit the charcoal in my kettle grill. I popped open a can of beer and, correctly attired in my Hawaiian shirt, sat back in my lawn chair and tuned in to a Jimmy Buffett concert on CD (turned up way loud!) Ahh Merry Christmas! Time for cheeseburgers!
The only thing I forgot as I was getting comfortable was to latch the back gate. Ordinarily, when I lounge in the back yard with Buffett, beer and burning briquettes, my black woolly dog, Dylan, is at my side. The music appears to be lost on him, so I assume it's the beer he's after. But as the steel drums began tinkling and Buffett began singing, the burgers began sizzling and I began sipping, it came to my attention that the dog was nowhere in sight.
I whistled and immediately Dylan came running up the driveway and scooted through the gate. He trotted over to my chair and obediently sat down beside me. He was tapping his paw to the music while eyeballing my frosty can of beer.
"Don't be running off," I scolded him, although he's never run far.
Usually, he scampers around to the front of the house and sits on the porch. Sometimes he'll press his nose against the window and look in.
So Dylan said to me, "What's with the tree?"
"Tree? What are you talking about?"
"The tree in your living room. That's really weird. And it's got colored lights wrapped around it."
"How would you know?" I asked him. "I thought dogs were color blind."
"How would you know?" he asked me. "You're not a dog."
"It's a Christmas tree," I explained. "I guess you outdoor dogs don't know about 'O Tannenbaum.'"
"We know three things about trees. They make great shade in the summer. They provide a safe haven for those @#!* squirrels when they run away from us. And trees make a great urinal!"
"Well, at Christmas time we humans make some space in our living rooms and put up a tree -- ours is artificial because the Good Wife is allergic to many things."
"Why can't you make some space in there for me once in awhile?"
"Because you're one of the things GW is allergic to."
"So tell me about this Christmas thing. It seems to happen about once every year around this time. I can usually tell because people seem to be a little kinder."
"That's true, although people should be kind all year round. That's the
idea behind Christmas. A baby named Jesus was born 2000 years ago in a town called Bethlehem, in Israel. The whole story is in a book called The Bible."
I turned my burgers and cracked open another beverage, then continued,
"Jesus grew up to be a very great man who wandered through the
desert, healed the sick, fed the hungry and preached an unusual message
that folks hadn't heard before. He told people to love another, to do
good, to turn the other cheek if someone slaps them and to pray for
those who hate them.
"Well, people were startled. They had never heard such talk. This was
unorthodox stuff, all this love and forgiveness without revenge
and retribution. But his words apparently caught on because, even after
2000 years, they're still being preached the world over. Why, even the
government of these United States of America was founded on Christian
principles.
"Yes, sir. Jesus became known among Christians as 'the Way, the Truth and the Life.' He's called the Prince of Peace. And the message of Christmas is 'Peace on earth, good will toward men.' That's why we observe Jesus' birthday every 25th of December."
"And go back to kicking ass on the 26th?"
"Yeah, pretty much," I said. "I gotta admit. We don't have that peace, love and forgiveness thing down real pat."
"Good story, though," my dog said. "So what's the tree in the living room got to do with anything?"
"Well, that's so Santa Claus can put our presents underneath it."
"Who's Santa Claus?"
"Oh, he's just another nice guy who shows up at Christmas with a message we also tend to forget about the rest of the year."
Copyright 2002 by Wendel Potter
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