Until Then We’ll Have to Muddle Through Somehow

Ghost of Christmas Future

Henry Corwin Said ~ As to my drinking, this is indefensible, and you have my abject apologies. I find of late that I have very little choice in the matter of expressing emotions. I can either drink, or I can weep, and drinking is so much more subtle. But as for my insubordination, I was not rude to that woman. Someone should remind her that Christmas is more than barging up and down department store aisles and pushing people out of the way. Someone has to tell her that Christmas is another thing finer than that. Richer, finer, truer, and it should come with patience and love, charity, compassion.

All I know is that I’m an aging, purposeless, relic of another time, and I live in a dirty rooming house on a street filled with hungry kids and shabby people, where the only thing that comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve is more poverty. Do you know another reason why I drink, Mr. Dundee? So that when I walk down the tenements, I can really think it’s the North Pole, and the children are elves, and that I’m really Santa Claus bringing a bag of wondrous gifts for all of them. I just wish, Mr. Dundee, one Christmas, only one, that I could see some of the hopeless ones and the dreamless ones. Just on one Christmas, I’d like to see the meek inherit the Earth. And that’s why I drink, Mr. Dundee, and that’s why I weep.

He Said ~ There are reasons we consider great writing staples of our daily life, especially during the holidays. In the age of AI, ChatGPT, and all things artificially enhanced, it calms the spirit to read our treasured prose and watch our cherished classics. The excerpt above is from a Rod Serling, (of course), masterpiece. It centers around a department store Santa seeking respite for those around him who are surrounded by a squalid landscape and suffocating from shattered hopes. In the end, Mr. Serling reminds us: “There’s a wondrous magic to Christmas and there’s a special power reserved for little people. In short, there’s nothing mightier than the meek.”

Perhaps to some this is a foibled fantasy or a foolish fable; to me it is a wondrous way to embrace the soul of these holidays. We all could benefit from that perspective. 

Enjoy the reflections below and Have Yourself a …

Buddy the Elf Said ~ Why don’t you just say it? I’m the worst toy-maker in the world. I’m a Cotton-Headed Ninnymuggins!

The Grinch Said ~ They’ll dance with jingtinglers tied onto their heels.

They’ll blow their floofloovers. They’ll bang their tartookas.

They’ll blow their whohoopers. They’ll bang their gardookas.

They’ll spin their trumtookas. They’ll slam their slooslunkas.

They’ll beat their blumbloopas. They’ll wham their whowonkas.

And they’ll play noisy games like zoozittacarzay,

A roller-skate type of lacrosse and croquet!

And then they’ll make ear-splitting noises galooks

On their great big electro whocarnio flooks!

Old Man Parker Said ~ Fraa-jeel-aay! It must be Italian!

Clarence Odbody Said ~ Remember, George: No man is a failure who has friends.

Kevin McCallister Said ~ This is extremely important. Will you please tell Santa that instead of presents this year, I just want my family back?

John McClane Said ~ Yippee-ki-yay, mother******!

David and Bing Said ~ Every child must be made aware

Every child must be made to care

Care enough for his fellow man

To give all the love that he can

I pray my wish will come true

For my child and your child too

He’ll see the day of glory

See the day when men of goodwill

Live in peace, live in peace again

Peace on Earth

Can it be

Did You Know? Songwriters Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine wrote the classic song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in 1943. The song “began with the melody,” Martin said. “I found a little madrigal-like tune that I liked but couldn’t make work, so I played with it for two or three days and then threw it in the wastebasket.” Luckily, Blaine had heard the tune and told Martin it was too good to throw away. “We dug around the wastebasket and found it,” Blaine recalled. “Thank the Lord we found it.”