monthly conversation experiment #7

Hope for the Holidays: ‘Shine a Light’

By Charles Rubin of Lake Huntington, NY
Posted 12/30/20

The holiday lights around town seem brighter and more ambitious this year. As we approach the solstice and the darkness both literally and metaphorically seems overpowering, we are fighting back. Our …

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monthly conversation experiment #7

Hope for the Holidays: ‘Shine a Light’

Posted

The holiday lights around town seem brighter and more ambitious this year. As we approach the solstice and the darkness both literally and metaphorically seems overpowering, we are fighting back. Our houses are aglow and our energies—which, in the before times, would be spent at an end-of-year frenzy of friends, family, coworkers and neighbors—are now focused on our home life and those that we include in our trusted spaces. When this is all just an unpleasant memory, this holiday season will stand out as a moment of beauty amidst the bleakness.

I believe that I am like many people who have had to reach deep to counter the isolation, frustration and confusion. I’m unemployed, in a COVID at-risk group and my children are far away and reluctant to visit their parents for fear of being a contagion vector. Despite this, I, like many of my peers, have found volunteer opportunities, long-delayed projects and new technologies that allow for stronger connections to our friends, families and communities.

My hope for the holidays is that the COVID-19 era will be the prelude to a reawakening of community service and engagement. We will be so excited to re-engage with the world around us that we will build new bonds that can withstand pandemics, natural disasters or whatever the fates throw at us. The lights that we defiantly shine now will illuminate a stronger world tomorrow.

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