It’s the day before Christmas, my first one in the city
filled with buzzing people going here and there and every with arms and bags
full of packages. This Christmas is a little bit different, the weather has
been worth remember as it has left a lot of people without hydro and still I
over hear plenty enough conversations of mothers, aunts, brothers, family
members without hydro. And yet everyone is up and about to gather together for
the celebrations of this time of year.
It is my first time being in the city so close to Christmas,
actually it is currently 12:08 a.m. and so technically it is Christmas. It is
very different here in the city compared to the quiet country. Things are a
buzz here, early this morning I myself was rushing around to find some port
loins to make the famous German schnitzel for our Christmas Eve dinner with the
German interns. After many unrelated stops we were on the subway well on our
way to arriving and I finally just slowed down enough to look around.
Right next to us was a family of what culture I am still not
quick sure many Romanian or some eastern European is my uneducated guess. They
sat together speaking in what to me was a foreign language, but what I was able
tell was that they were happy as the two little boys nibbling on a cracking and
sipping hot chocolate from a shared thermos. Next to them was an Asia couple
chatting away. Beyond them was a young lady by herself tuned into whatever
musical device was in her pocket. Across the aisle was what seemed to be two
friends who had met up to chat on this Christmas Eve and were discussing hair
color and random events of life? As I gazed farther down the car there was what
seemed to be an unending amounts of people from all country and culture and
many different languages. If I closed my eyes and just listened I could make
out very little but putting aside all language, culture and whatever
differences what I could sense was just a presence of togetherness as we were
all on this train on this day, each heading somewhere with some purpose and
most of us with smiles on their faces.
It made me think of how big this world is, of all the
countries and cultures, peoples and religions. Made me think of how each person
in that train had some understanding of this time of the year being a time of
year to celebrate something and how being with family and friends seems to be
important. Made me think of all the many ways and reasons people were and are
celebrating. It made me think of how ever person in that train was exactly like
me, just another person in this world, seemingly small, unimportant, just
another person traveling to be with loved ones. Just another person working
their way through this world very much doing their own thing but without really
knowing and understanding living their lives with so many random strangers as
we all travel together.
But yet if you think long term of where we are all going
many do not know. Many of no idea where the train is heading and when or where
they are going to arrive. Many are lost and don’t understand the subway map of this
life and yet why not, we are all celebrating Christmas are we not and if we are
celebrating Christmas should we also not understand why we are celebrating
Christmas. Ah but there is a probably, so many do not even know why they are
celebrating Christmas. How did Christmas even come to be? A reason to be with
family and friends to give and to receive sounds good enough and so many do not
even bother to think past that to why this holiday exists. It’s not like it is
hidden, I was walking through Sears tonight on my way to get a coffee at Tim’s
since church had been canceled due to hydro being out when I noticed a
children’s toy nativity set. It sadly surprised me that these are still being
sold, I did not expect it to still be “advertised” but it’s not as hidden as
some of us tend to think it is. The day before today I was in another store and
“Away and the manger” was being play loud and clear over the speakers for all
to hear. “The little lord Jesus asleep in the hay”, people hear stuff like this
all the time. Some time I wonder what people really do think of it all.
I love listening to other languages, to hear and yet to not
understand. To at times be able to follow along by understanding a word here
and there is like a game to me. It makes me feel like I am a part of something
bigger then myself when there is something that is a mystery right before my
own eyes or ears. I don’t know why this all made me think so much or affected
me in this way but it made me feel very happy. Sitting on that training watching
people represented from all over the world sitting in one train in one city,
celebrating the same thing whether they are aware of it or not and to see them
smiling and the irony is they don’t even know why such a thing as Christmas
causes them to smile, imagine if they actually did and the real joy it would
bring to their faces.
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