Finding meaning for Christmas

As I post this blog, it is Thanksgiving Day today...and exactly 30 days before Christmas 2010.

In the myriad of all the work load that I seem to be swamped with, I don't seem to feel the Christmas spirit.

Many of my friends and batchmates are busy preparing for the "Christmas" parties. Even at the office, there is the usual Kris Kringle with its weekly theme.

Outside, the malls are decked with all the glitters and lights. Some of my neighbors have actually put up their lanterns (Parols) and begun donning their gardens and trees in all gay apparel.

On my way home from the clinic last night, I watched some of the street children jingling their quarter full cans with coins. As I was looking outside the heavily tinted windows of my car, a child had stretched his face on the window hoping to get a glimpse of an occupant in the car who would probably pull out from his wallet a bill or a few coins to spare. As the rain came down hard on such a gloomy night, the young boy had scampered away in the dark. And all I could do was wonder where Dinky Soliman was in the middle of the rain....

As Christmas is around the bend, I tried desperately to search for the meaning of this yuletide season. As a matter of fact, truth be told, I always try to find some meaning for Christmas.

I asked my driver to put on the CD of Mariah Carey's new Christmas Album. In the stillness of the downpour and traffic, this song which I am posting gave me the goose bumps. I didn't know how to react or how to feel, but it felt so palpably surreal. Christmas is not about me...it's about someone who gave meaning to Christmas - one child made the difference. It was time to make mine.














When I got home, I asked the maid to bring out the Christmas Tree.

[video from YouTube.com]