God Bless Us Everyone

Our world has been made better by our diversity. Lord knows where we would be without the contributions made by people of different ethnicity, different faiths, varied backgrounds. 

Our Jewish culture gave us Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis. Ann Frank left us a diary and showed the world that courage can endure even under unspeakable conditions. Albert Einstein, famous for the theory of relativity, laid the basis for the release of atomic energy. Jonas Salk, whose parents were Jewish immigrants, invented the polio vaccine and saved untold lives. Their gifts to the world are beyond words. 

And what would we, as teenage girls, have done if we had not had Paul Newman to salivate over, or Cid Caesar, born of Jewish immigrants, to tickle our funny bones? Not satisfied to pad his bank account with movie money, Paul Newman used much of it to make the world better for kids who had no hope of a bright future. In 1988, he opened The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Connecticut so that children coping with serious illnesses would have a special hideout where they could simply be kids. 

Think of Oprah and what all she has done to make a difference and, given how her life began and what she was forced to endure while growing up, it is incredible that she emerged with such an enormous generosity of spirit. The Met would not have been nearly as wonderful without the voices of African Americans. When I hear the voice of Leontyne Price, I am brought to my knees.

The world of people is like a big bang of multi-colored confetti and each one of us has a chance to contribute. It is not about always being perfect, or always being right. It is about being. Just being. And it’s about getting up when we fall down and trying again when we fall short, even when failure dogs us to the brink.

 I would like to think I will live long enough to see the end of bigotry, but sadly I know that will not happen. My grandchildren may have a shot at living in a world that is better than what I see today but it means they will have to work at it, and it will take time. Lots of time. I hope they will not lose hope.

I recently read a story from my Christmas book, High Cotton Christmas. It was “That’s the Spirit!” It was just a story, one I made up. The Christmas season lends itself to storytelling. Did it matter that my story was make believe? Nope. When we welcome the spirit of this special time, before long, good things begin to happen. We are nicer to others; we smile at strangers; we renew our spirit by giving generously; we forgive past hurts and we look toward happier times. We are reminded of Dicken’s favorite last line in A Christmas Carol and that ain’t such a bad thing. 

My reading went well and I sold a ton of books and I have people who were in the Christmas spirit to thank for that. We all become more generous during this time of year ... but even so, I’ll stick with Dickens. “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!”

So here’s to all of you ... “God bless us every one.”