Season Musings

Letters to Santa and Christmas wish lists are now a thing of the past as we move toward the new year. Some of those lists, however, are worth a second look. For instance, the list compiled by Suri Cruise, 5-year old daughter of Tom Cruise and Katy Holmes. Suri wanted a pony, diamond earrings and gowns. Cost of the items on her list: $130,000. In contrast, a 100-year-old letter to Santa was found in a chimney in Ireland. It was sort of burnt around the edges, but readable. For the Christmas of 1911, the three children in that family asked for a baby doll, a pair of gloves and a toffee apple. Christmas is, indeed, many things to many people.
One of my gifts this Christmas was my own personal robot. When we think of robots, the one from “Lost in Space” comes to mind, with its human-like features and slinky-like arms. Mine doesn’t look at all like a human. It looks like something that might cook pancakes. It is about 2 inches high, round, with a diameter of about one foot. It is an “IRobot.” It vacuums the floors. All you do is turn it on and watch it move, in this direction and that, until it finally covers every inch of open area in a room. I missed it for a few minutes and soon it emerged from under the bed. That was probably the first time that area had been cleaned, since the normal vacuum cleaner cannot reach that far under the bed. It doesn’t care if the floor is wood, marble, linoleum or carpet; it works the same for all surfaces. When I opened the package, I could honestly say, “Just what I’ve always wanted.”
When my sisters and I were little kids at Christmas (they were 3 and I was 6), they got dolls and I got a windup train that ran on a circle of tracks. When the spring in the engine broke, I opened it up to see how it worked. I was never able to put the train back together. When the girls’ dolls were inevitably left outside in the rain, they were discarded and I got to take them apart, too. I remember how the realistic eyes were attached to a weighted lever inside the head of the doll, so that the doll’s eyes closed when it was laid down on its back. I was never able to put them back together, either. There must be a lesson in that somewhere: it’s easier to break than to mend, to tear down than to build, to criticize than to create. Emphasizing the positive is a very valuable trait to cultivate. That lesson is clearly taught in the Scriptures.