A Very Merry Christmas

The McGuffey Gazette's Christmas card has this essay reproduced, torn from Michigan View's Henry Payne's favorite magazine, Reason. It's penned by A. Barton Hinkle, a columnist at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, placed/nestled inside with a arty card featuring a luminous winter shot of the majestic Detroit skyline at Christmas-as seen from the peaceful Windsor shore-as a cover:

"These are the folks who write earnest monographs on how everybody has the wrong idea about Ebeneezer Scrooge, who was really a thrifty capitalist hero. Their idea of a neat Christmas present is something like a "Who Is John Galt?" doormat-except there isn't one, because John Galt was nobody's doormat...so instead you get a book on Basel bank-capital requirements and a bookmark in the shape of Ludwig von Mises."

"Which is not to say that either group is wrong, mind you-merely that, like the madman in Chesterton's "Orthodoxy," they are "trapped in the well-lit prison of one idea...sharpened to one painful point." You want to say to them, look: If British and German soldiers could sing carols together at Ypres in WWI, then the rest of us are entitled to give politics a break for one lousy day. Here, have some peppermint bark."

"After all, giving people a break is what the holiday is all about. The story of Christmas is the story of a wrathful, smiting God who had a change of heart. A God who said: "You know what? All those horrible, awful, things you've done? Forgiven. We're going to wipe the slate clean and start over. Yet get a second chance."

"That is, at bottom, what makes Christmas such a poignantly joyous holiday. There are not many of us who have not at some time felt lost, broken, inadequate, consumed with guilt. To be forgiven is a great relief. But it is also a great relief to forgive someone else: to let go of grudges and resentments, to give them a reprieve and accept them as they are. And this is something even those of us who cannot swallow the New Testament whole can take part in. You don't have to make peace with the story of Jesus to make peace with your neighbor."

Source: A. Barton Hinkle in Reason Magazine "On Christmas, Escaping the Well-Lit Prison: Give the gift of forgiveness this holiday season." December 23, 2011

And So, Merry Christmas & to all a good night...

Original.