'Tis the season

So its the holiday season. We've gobbled our way through Thanksgiving. We are well on our way to a chilly Solstice which happens to be the start of Hanukkah as well. We will jingle through to Christmas and then dance into Kwanzaa. Then climax with New Year's Eve. Not a bad run if you think about it. I'm looking forward to it all.

And as usual, I find the lyrics of three songs most appropriate to the strongest sentiments flowing through my mind.

The first is "Grown-Up Christmas List". The parts of the lyrics that speak to me are:

So here's my lifelong wish
My grown up christmas list
Not for myself
But for a world in need

No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
and wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown up christmas list

The second song is "Someday at Christmas" by Stevie Wonder. The entire song is pretty fantastic but the lyrics that stand out to me most are:

Someday at Christmas men won't be boys
Playing with bombs like kids play with toys
One warm December our hearts will see
A world where men are free

Someday at Christmas there'll be no wars
When we have learned what Christmas is for
When we have found what life's really worth
There'll be peace on earth

Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime

and the last song is "Happy Christmas (War is over)" by John Lennon.

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong

And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

All three songs are about hope that tomorrow will be better. That we will find a way to end wars and get along more peacefully. And that we can learn that loving one another despite our differences leads to a better world.

I know its sappy. And I know its unrealistic. And I know that the odds of it ever happening are as close to zero as you can get.

And yet I still hope for it. I guess that is what hope is all about.

Happy and Hopeful Holidays folks.