This was going to be a festive season. I had all these plans to reissue my Grumpy Santa cartoons to give an alternative view of the holiday season. I even decorated my Dogon ladder in anticipation of the holidays.
But after September 14, I lost that festive sense because I know that slamming Santa this year was not in the cards. All of us lost a collective sense that somehow Christmas was a time for joyous celebration. This is a wound that will take a long time to heal for us collectively, but for twenty-seven families this is a wound that will never heal.
Twenty children will not eagerly go to bed on Christmas eve to wait for reindeer hooves on the roof and the sound of those bells that reindeer have to wear or in anticipation of another holiday ;morning. Six families will have an empty chair at the table for a hero school teacher or caregiver who will not be coming home for dinner.
We should also remember that a family in New Hampshire will be missing their daughter and sister who apparently was trying to do the right thing for her child.
I don’t have the desire to run those cartoons this year; I just want to hug my two granddaughters and hold them a little tighter this Christmas eve. As for celebrating this holiday season publicly, I just want to play my most treasured Christmas hymn.