Wars on two fronts. A tanking economy, with its roller-coaster stock market, big corporate and Wall Street bailouts and near historic unemployment figures. Even Santa became a reluctant shopper. Unimaginable millions spent on political campaigns while some Americans are doing without.
Mayhem in a park in Phoenix, at a Hanukkah party in New York, at a Christmas party in California, on roads in Dallas and its suburbs.
Closer to home, children abused in the name of religion and by adoptive parents, job loss scares and job losses, a county jail that seems better fitted for the theater of the absurd than law enforcement, political wrangling and double dealing, people on both sides in dog fights and cat fights over dogs and cats.
Weird weather everywhere.
As we approach the end of the year, it doesn’t seem that much — near or far — offers any inkling of a brighter, more hopeful future.
But let’s not bite the cynicism bullet just yet.
We can’t rise and shine without a glimmer of hope.
We may have to look hard, but we should take it where we find it, and we shouldn’t try to quantify it.
In some places, Secret Santas handed out $100 bills.
Somewhere else, people in need themselves who stumbled onto lost envelopes of someone else’s cash returned it without thought of reward.
Here in our area, people gave so generously to charity, at least one nonprofit exceeded its holiday fundraising goal in a year most of us would not have been surprised to see giving cut back.
Strangers stepped up to look after the rights of the dozens of abused children in this area.
The communities came together to save one big employer with incentives, public and private.
Sometimes in dark and dismal times, we seem more likely to reach out into the gloom to help others, to share our light, to take stock and discover our better angels in the midst of chaos and confusion.
That uncovering of our common destiny and humanity always is reason for a ray of hope.
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