Home For Christmas

I was a student at Hesston College--a million miles from home. Being in my second and final year did not make the distance any less. Already four weeks before Christmas I was counting the days until vacation and being at home. I was also editor of the Hesston College Journal and had one more edition to put to bed before heading East.

My mind was in no frame to write an editorial but I was backed up against a deadline and something had to fill that space. In desperation a pulled down a volumn of quotations. Maybe I could copy something that would satsify my word count. Under "Christmas" and under "Dickens" one line stood out like a string of blinking lights, "And I do go home at Christmas."

Don't ask me what work it is from or what followed that line. I didn't see any more than that. I could have gone on for a whole chapter on that idea. I had my editorial in twenty minutes. It hardly fit in a college periodical. Certainly not scholarly nor researched. It was simply the heartfelt ache of a homesick kid.

I guess every year since I have gone home at Christmas. Treasuring the memory of 60 Christmases. Beging with the one at 508 N. Elm, Nappanee to eight different homes. But wherever, finding there the beauty of family, the joy of being together, the richness of tradition, the secuity of faith, the wonder of love. Beginning with just two of us in a honeymoon cottage in Vineland, Ontario where our gifts were cautiously calculated because our resources were so limited. Later in Lombard, Illinois where the house was bulging with children home from school and the paper from our gifts would have filled a bale. In each place there is the warmth and delight of experiencing what all the cards wish for and portray as meaningful.

I do go home for Christmas and relive or rather live anew everything from the awesome quiet of a star filled night to the happy clamor of a family exulting in the joy of being toether at home for Christmas.

Words That Come and Go

I've noticed that some words are like clothing fads, they come in style and in five years they are all but forgotten. Remember during the eighties when everyone was fascinated by the new phenomena of satelites and electronic communication. Suddenly everyone was "down loading" and "up linking " or "off loading." It seemed rather ostentatious. One employer had his fill and posted this notice: "I will be down coming on the next person I hear saying down load and they will soon be out going." History doesn't record the result of that threat but those terms, in most circles, are only a memory.



More recently we were hearing a constant barrage of "robust." As I remember it was one of Don Rumsfeld's favorite terms. He had robust troop build-ups and robust offensives going all the time. Another phrase becoming threadbare and needing to be replaced is "at the end of the day." Apparently it is one of the rules of the United States Senate that no speech will be be on the floor or interview made on television that does not include "at the end of the day." What's wrong with "finally"? I sincerely hope that we are close to the end of the road with "at the end of the day."



"The bottom line" is a related phrase that made it big with the politicians and was sometimes picked up by the locals as indicating being knowledgable. Actually, it meant that you couldn't think of the phrase "in summary."



Finally, there is "going forward." This one is heard primarily among politicians. It seems to mean "in the future" but then I suppose "going forward" indicates that you know all about the future and are fearlessly progressing toward the solving of all problems.



These words too, will no doubt have their day and then receed into the bin of former catchy fads that have lost their appeal. May they rest in peace along with "spiffy" and "cool." Oops. You mean "cool" is alive and well? I guess the bottom line is that some words take longer to die than others.