Christmas need not be divisive

I wish this time of year could be celebrated by everybody, each in their own way according to their personal beliefs, without being offended by diversity. Nobody owns Christmas time. If Christmas time could be owned, then it is best viewed as a cuddly toy, grabbed by one greedy child, snatched away by another, and then grasped firmly by many and slowly torn apart in their efforts to assert ownership.

Let Christmas time be shared by all. It is not another opportunity for proselytizing, for locking a particular religion or lack of religion into a broader culture; it is not a time to compete to see whose ideological icons can feature most prominently in public places, and it is not a time to sanitize our language, to try to eradicate all traces of Christ from our traditional greetings. Let it be a holiday from the culture war, when we can sit back and remember that we are all human.

I wish you a peaceful Christmas.

♦ Christma-Hanu-Rama-Ka-Dona-Kwanzaa