Years ago about this time, I spent a chaotic and culturally revealing afternoon with an excited class of Japanese preschoolers. My premise was to find out what they knew and thought about this old man in red who brings presents to their house.
“My Grandpa!” one little boy shouted. “He comes every New Year's.”
New Year, of course, is the big year-end holiday in Japan. The country basically shuts down for a week of private family times, informal parades of women in their finest kimonos, shrine visits, and memories of those who’ve passed on.
At the stroke of midnight, every temple swings a giant log against immense bells scores of times. In the crowded cities, that makes for the most beautiful symphony of gongs from all directions.
All the children were excited for that. They were aware of this Santa Claus fellow who brings presents. He doesn’t make them, they told me. He buys them at fancy stores.
Claus-san is not fat. No one in Japan is fat, except Sumo wrestlers. The magic reindeer thing did not fly with the youngsters. And they thought maybe Santa lived in Thailand.
Christmas itself was a zero to the class. Except for one little girl, who told me it always comes on the last Sunday in December. Turns out, she was the only Christian there. Dec. 25 is not a holiday in Japan, so the family celebrates it on her father’s closest day off.
She’s probably got her own children now, even grandchildren. I think of her open, little-girl face every Christmas, so innocent, happy, and full of hope at the thought of this holiday.
It’s a reminder, albeit a distant, faint one, that Hope should be a constant at this time of year, like the scent of evergreens.
This is supposed to be a season of hope and happiness, exchanging thoughtful and silly gifts with loved ones and little ones, living among bright lights and magic dreams.
It is a time to mark the birth of a Savior, savoring what He lived and died for, although that often seems to get lost in Amazon lust.
Maybe it’s just me. Though I doubt it. So many disappointing, discouraging, and downright depressing things are going on in this vast land so very full of promise. And I personally see no real possibility of change for, God help us, another full year, at least.
Our political “leadership” has failed us all around. We have an ancient, addled president who daily displays an angry, clogged mind that needs a Draino flush. His words are consistently jumbled and garbled, which is one thing for a grandfather but something else for the commander in chief.
Two days ago, Joe Biden attempted to impress a Nevada audience with the vast investments of his Bidenomics plans.
The president of the United States and alleged leader of the free world said those investments totaled “over a billion three hundred million trillion three hundred million dollars!"
Biden continued his remarks unaware.
The people around the 81-year-old Biden, enjoying the reflected power of their positions, and a complacent media pleased to promote his political narrative and wallow in their proximity to power, all carry on as if the naked emperor wears a stunning new suit.
Then, there are the smoldering foreign payment scandals that will not go away. The wayward, lying, cheating son now potentially facing 17 years in prison. And the unfolding paper links from him to the Big Guy, who wants to continue his lucrative gig until 2029.
It’s all like a bad dream where people are smoking cigarettes while pumping gas in slow motion, unable or unwilling to hear the rest of us screaming.
As the looming alternative commander in chief at the moment, we have an angry Donald Trump, self-centered, seeking redemption from his 2020 defeat and reportedly revenge for the countless frauds perpetrated against him.
His alleged crimes are both real and concocted but, in reality, center on threatening the Swamp’s fearful, entrenched establishment and preventing Hillary Clinton’s rightful inheritance.
We have a confused, also angry, often inattentive electorate helplessly lining up as if the only available choices for president are two old men that majorities of both parties say they don’t want.
Viable alternatives are available, at least on the Republican side.
But both parties are so weakened by years of fears, weak leadership, and bitter divisions among stubborn factions that neither has what my grandmother would call the gumption to do anything other than ride along, just hoping to keep what they have.
The sensible thing for Democrats to do in the next few weeks and in the ensuing primaries is to summon the courage to say:
Thank you, Mr. President, for your many years in the Senate and White House. You’ve done remarkable things. It’s time now for you and your team to make room for younger folks.
That’s not likely to happen. And be careful what you wish for because you might get some farm team member like J.B. Pritzker or Gavin Newsom.
The devastating realization we must face this holiday season is that no one anywhere in any position of power today has the greater interests of the nation in mind.
The late Chicago journalist Mike Royko once wrote that instead of “Urbs In Horto” (City in a Garden), his city’s motto should be “Ubi Est Mea” (Where’s Mine?).
Whether Barack Obama was the carrier of that avarice virus to infect D.C. doesn’t matter. That is the culture that rules now there and beyond.
Do you think the radical left-wing Democrats that Biden so eagerly wooed, even to the extent of igniting the ongoing inflation tax on every American, care about the strength of our country? Or just the narrow agenda of their own little political posse?
Do you think Republican House members, who elected one Speaker then turned on him and each other for three weeks of political wrestling, were struggling to make the United States of America stronger? Or just the jealousies of their own little political street gang?
Full of hope like that little Japanese girl’s face, we are about to encounter another holiday season. And then enter another divisive Leap Year primary season.
Unfortunately, our cockamamie primary system puts way too much influence and power in the hands of a relatively small number of self-selected voters in unrepresentative but influential early places like Iowa and New Hampshire.
We can hope that they — and voters in ensuing states — make judicious and wise choices for the country’s greater good and not just the political team they favor at the moment.
We can hope that the summer party conventions follow through with thoughtful nominating decisions for both president and vice president, with attention focused on genuine leadership beyond those individual arenas.
We can hope that the fall campaigns make the strongest, honest arguments for their candidates, policies, and parties. And that voters listen openly and honestly.
Because our blessed, troubled land needs it so badly, we can hope that voters, collectively as fellow countrymen, make the wisest ballot decisions in the nation’s best overall interests.
We can hope. But that’s all that’s left.
Related Posts:
The 2024 Election Is 2020 Deja Vu All Over Again
Americans Dislike Both Parties But Much Prefer the Policies of One
Joe Biden Created the Illegal Alien Crisis and Here's Why He Won't Fix It
