Hope of Christmas
The only dependable Christmas tradition we have in my family (besides getting presents) is watching The Muppet Christmas Carol . I lucked out in marrying Mark, because his family has the same tradition; it makes honoring family rituals a lot more concise. I have been thinking, after watching it Christmas Eve, of how it tries to explain the concept of Christmas to Mr. Scrooge. There is a hint of religion in there, but mostly it defines Christmas as a loving time of year that does people good. Which is accurate, but not complete. As I thought of how I could distill Christmas into a concept, I hit upon Hope. Hope covers the most basic understanding--a child's anticipation of gifts, say--while also holding up to philosophical scrutiny and religious study. Hope for the humanity of mankind, hope that things can become better, and lots of other examples, but I want to concentrate on one: the Hope of A Chance. For many thousands of years, people have been born, and people have died. Amazi