Merry Christmas

So I am sitting here traveling late Christmas night and looking out my windows at the southern California 'countryside' (how this collection of buildings can be a countryside I don't know) and noticing how many businesses are closed. Other than gas stations and fast food places the stores are dark and parking lots empty. It has nothing to do with the fact that it is 9:00 on a Sunday night, it is Christmas. It gets me thinking about the annual bemoaning of the "secularization of Christmas." Always we hear about how secular the holiday has become and how bad it is. I am actually rather grateful for the secularization. In the area we are now traveling through is there really enough Christian influence to close down whole businesses for a religious holiday? I don't think so. Because Christmas has changed into a holiday that anyone can celebrate, most everyone does. This is not a new event unique to the current generations either. Look at the classic story of "A Christmas Carol". The only mention of a religious figure in the story is found if you split the central word of the title. The story is not about what some would call the true meaning of Christmas, but about a man learning that, at least on this one day, we need to really see and be involved in the lives of others. That "mankind is our business." If that is all some people get out of the day, how much better is the world for that. So bring on the Santas and the shopping. The odd Christmas songs and the parties. For a short time in the year let everyone celebrate in what ever way and for what ever reason the time that, as Dr. Who says, we are coming out of the dark. The darkness of winter and the darkness of our own narrow lives. Merry Christmas and "God bless us, everyone."