Holiday hang-ups miss big picture

Eric O´Link -- Staff Essay

With the darkest, bleakest months of the year upon SCSU, Atwood's annual pine garland decorations are back up outside the building.

Let's hope the garland gets to stay awhile.

Last year, the Atwood building decorating committee put up the garland as usual. Then the SCSU president's office received a letter of complaint. This letter said something to the effect that the garland decorations were a symbol of a Christian holiday - Christmas - and that the garland needed to be removed to make Atwood "more welcoming."

The president's office, in typical damage-control fashion, immediately called Atwood administrators to inform them of the request. The garland was gone in days, and for the remainder of the holiday season, the Atwood Mall looked as gray and as drab as ever.

Such a letter hasn't shown up this year, or if it has, the garland hasn't come down yet. I'm glad to see that. I do miss the wreath of greens that used to hang on the east wall of Atwood overlooking the Mall. But it's still nice to see the boughs brightening up campus again.

I might as well come out and say it:

I'm part of that "evil majority" on campus that celebrates Christmas and is not afraid to talk about it, show it or want to decorate because of it. I say "evil majority" because I know there is a smattering of people throughout SCSU that seem to think that any holiday embodied by a majority of those on campus should not be openly expressed or celebrated in a public place without representation of lesser-known holidays.

They have holiday hang-ups.

This attitude, I think, is the SCSU community's downfall. We welcome diversity and we foster understanding and acceptance of one another. But some of those at our university who loudly preach tolerance also quietly ignore those very ideals.

The holidays - Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule and any others I've neglected to mention - all fall at the same time of the year for one core reason. It's not purely religious, it's not really historical and it's not merely because the year's shortest day is Dec. 22.

We have our holidays because we choose to spend the darkest, coldest part of the year celebrating our families, our friends, our customs, our values and the goodness of the human spirit. This is our time of the year to concentrate on those wonderful things that each of us enjoys and our excuse to be extra kind toward one another.

In defiance of winter's icy fury, we party, we cook, we eat and we give gifts. We count our blessings, and with wistful sighs or relieved smiles, wave goodbye to the passing year and welcome the clean-slate-start of a new one.

Frantic shopping and consumerized Christmas aside, each holiday season is a time for revisiting the pleasure we find in life's simple gifts. Somehow, it seems easier to slow down and enjoy the laughter of loved ones, the cold wetness of snowflakes on your tongue, the magnificent resonance of a holiday concert, the delectable aroma of baking cookies, the brightness of stars on a frigid winter night or the quiet company of your favorite person and a glass of wine in front of a fireplace.

So it saddens me to see people grouse about what decorations are or are not put up around campus. They're missing the big picture. Of course we all have different traditions this season. Though our traditions, holidays and religious beliefs may differ person to person, we all really celebrate the same thing come December: the warmth and light that others bring to our hearts.

In "A Christmas Carol," Tiny Tim's famous line did not include "of us who celebrate Christmas."

"God bless us, every one," was enough for him.

I couldn't have said it better.

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