My wife and I first wish you all a Merry Christmas. At the very least we hope the seasonal aspects of peace, love, and deeply rooted joy enter your heart and soul. We still dare to hope these wishes also spread from the end of this season through 2025 and beyond. Despite this being my 71st Christmas and the accumulation of a freight train’s worth of cynicism, I’ve found hope and optimism remain surprisingly strong in my heart.

In the photo above, the ornament symbolizes all of that. Its pink and white frosted layers have many imperfections. The bulb has carried most of those imperfections since its creation, but also has lost some of its sparkle as grains have fallen off through the years. It nevertheless remains shiny where first it shone, and it draws the eye amid the more modern ornaments picked up during the years, the modern (and safer) lights, and the not-so-accurately-manufactured tree needles on our artificial tree. My parents gave me this ornament with a few others when I struck out on my own about 45 years ago. It can’t be younger than the 1950’s, the same as me. As it’s lost its sheen to poor handling, indifferent storage, and the jostling of eight moves during our marriage alone, it’s gained character and presence, standing out among the gaudier yet superficial touches of the newer decorations.

Ultimately, like this ornament, all of us arrive at this Now and this Here being who we are. We put on and take off habits every few years, but settle into most for decades. Beneath the cloak(s) of these habits lie the core of our beings. This Christmastide, I wish you what I wish for myself: a closer understanding of that. When we walk confidently with our Selves, we can accept the unique Others who walk with us on this path. Maybe then we’ll have a little more peace in this world. Maybe then we won’t shout in anger at each other. Maybe we can inch a little bit closer to the perfection buried in our hearts.

Postscript: I’ve kept the above thoughts on the vague, bordering-on-vacuous-greeting card level because I don’t want to push an agenda at you. These thoughts underlie all spiritual beliefs. Even those who believe in nothing but organic humanism (just the brain, baby, then you’re gone!) have a spiritual belief–they believe there aren’t any. To these and to all, I say, “Acknowledge the Self. Recognize it in Others. This forms a bedrock more fundamental than the trappings of religions and philosophy. We all could get behind this concept and make a better world in the process.