Joel Hirschhorn

The Best Christmas Gift



Posted: Tuesday, December 16, 2008

by
http://www.delusionaldemocracy.com

We all know in our hearts what the best Christmas gift is. It certainly could not possibly be any kind of product or service that someone could purchase, not even if it was incredibly unique, creative or expensive. It is not something that we have talked about for years, something we have always dreamed of having or receiving but without much hope that we would ever get it. It certainly is not anything that is constantly advertised on TV or in magazines and newspapers, or annoying us in pop-up ads on web pages. Nor is it anything that we regularly see in those many catalogs timed to hit our mail boxes for the Christmas season.

The best gift is not something that you really want to glibly talk about. Nor can you think of giving it to someone else because it has meant so much to you. This most precious gift can only be received, not given.

And after you get it you hope very, very much that you will only get it once, just once, and that circumstances will not reappear to make it necessary to hope for it to happen again.

The best Christmas gift to receive is the gift of life for someone you love with all your heart.

It comes after weeks or days of knowing that death is knocking very loudly on your door. After prayer has worn you out. It comes when hope has left you numb. The best gift comes when positive thoughts have been crowded out by tears.

How many of us get the gift of life on Christmas? When a happy ending gets delivered on this special day, as if some script had already been written with a miracle that turns broken hearts to peaceful sleep?

Well, it happens. And not just in miracle-on-Christmas stories and movies, but in our real world of pain and suffering.

It happens when you child who is in the Army and serving in Iraq has been missing in action for many days but then you get a phone call that he has been slightly injured but is doing fine, and that call came in the early morning hours of Christmas.

When you get that kind of Christmas gift you realize there is no amount of money that can buy any gift that could possibly be more gratifying than the gift of life of a loved one.

What all of us should give more thought to is how we can in some way give a gift to improve the quality of life of someone, and that is very, very different than giving gifts that give pleasure or entertainment but that are really not necessary. Spending money in these terrible economic times on Christmas gifts should be based on coming as close as possible to giving the gift of life. That means giving food to the hungry, or assistance to help someone get needed clothes or medical care or to make a mortgage payment. Forget luxuries. Survival by having the true necessities of life is what we need to think about when it comes to gift giving. Those of us meeting our survival needs should look around at those we know and don't know to see how we can help them survive in a tough, cruel world. It's the next best thing to receiving the gift of life.

Joel S. Hirschhorn has succeeded as: a full professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison; a senior staffer, U.S. Congress (Office of Technology Assessment); head of an environmental consulting company; Director of Environment, Energy and Natural Resources, National Governors Association; now an author and consultant. Recent books are: Sprawl Kills - How Blandburbs Steal Your Time, Health and Money, and Delusional Democracy - Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government. He has published hundreds of articles in newspapers, magazines, journals and on many web magazine sites. He has given hundreds of talks at a wide range of conferences worldwide. He focuses on American culture, politics and government, and health issues.
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