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FOR A SON AT CHRISTMAS
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When Christmas comes around this
year, I’d like to give you something that you least expect: your father’s
wisdom. If, indeed, he’s yet acquired enough to share. Your father’s charity, if
he can truly say he has done nothing all these years to harm his fellow man. Your
father’s understanding, if he understands your needs well enough to listen to whole
paragraphs of your young troubles without judging you mid-sentence. Your father’s
absolution, though he has yet to be absolved for the recklessness he’s passed down to
you both knowingly and unknowingly. Your father’s future, if he can see untroubled
days ahead. Your father’s needs, that you might meet the ones he never filled
himself.
I hope, though, that your father, your old man, is not so selfish as to burden you with
his unanswered prayers. You will need all the God that you can get to answer some of those
requests you are making now and many you have not thought up yet, but will.
- Adapted from "An Outstretched Hand," 1980 |
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Steve Allen o
Helen Brann o George Dewey o Joyce Jillson o Alan King o Doris Lilly o Henry Miller o Donald Moffat o Mao Tse-tung o Maurice Utrillo o Tahney Welch o Richard Widmark o Rosemary Woods |
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A gift accepted has
no strings.
In Christ all things are possible. The world we run in is
proof enough.
So much pleasure comes from giving that it’s almost
stealing.
Where do they go, the people who sail into our lives like
green leaves and disappear like snow ? |
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AN AFTER CHRISTMAS SONG
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The Day
After Christmas
As you untie your packages
and drink a cup of good cheer
think how it’s gonna be for us
this time again next year.
We’ll pack the ornaments together
after the tree comes down
and on The Day After Christmas
whatever be the weather
we’ll both go driving into town.
When all the families are sleeping
and you're alone in your room
remember how it was last November
think how it’s gonna be soon.
No use in my pretending
that I like being far away
but on the day after Christmas
I’ll make a happy ending
and bring you home another holiday.
And we’ll smile like tinsel on a tree
and I’ll collect all the promises
you’ve put away for me.
I hear the caroler’s singing
songs of the years gone by
and it’s enough to start the children singing
and make a lonesome man cry.
Hold on a little while longer
remember what I said
on The Day After Christmas
when I’ve lost the will to wander
I’ll tuck you in your feather bed.
On The Day After Christmas
I’ll be coming home forever
To tuck you in your feather bed.
- from the album "New Carols for Christmas", 1967 |
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