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Christmas Letter 2018

It has been a very strange and disquieting year. In the United States and around the world, we have suffered from wars, terrible storms, government corruption, and religious and racial hatred.

Yet at the end of each year, we celebrate life, the power of love, and the triumph of light over darkness. Much of what we do at year’s end is symbolic, like the lighting of candles on the Menorah. But it is vital that we do it and draw strength from it.

For, most of all, we celebrate hope. With hope, we are strong. We can conquer the chaos and fear that we encounter each day and help to build a better community, a better city, a better nation—a better world.

The news seems worse every day, yet hatred and chaos are not inevitable. We can reject them, and many of us have. Humans have survived, not by conflict, but by cooperation and compassion. We have been teachers, healers, scientists, firefighters, and first responders. We have sacrificed for the common good. We have sought truth and understanding, for ourselves and for the future. We have much reason for hope.

This year, as in the past, our family lit its holiday porch lights on Halloween, as a welcome for neighbors and a counter to the darkness that we are living through. It is dark now, but light and hope can still triumph, and we can still win through to a better future.

May your holidays be filled with light and your days filled with hope.

Essays and Thoughts • Essays on War • Selected Poems
givewings.com • Discover Germantown
Surviving the Future • About the Author