Christmas Blessings

by Wendell Cayton

We still believe in Santa in our home. With a nine-year-old, we refuse to give up our collective childhoods. Taped to the fireplace is her note to Santa. She thought this year, since she wasn’t asking for much, she could dispense with a longer email and settle for what he has in inventory.

Cathryn’s main item on the list was a request to make our Sassy better. Sassy is our Tibetan terrier who almost became lunch for a couple of English mastiffs the other day. Santa has already delivered; Sassy is fully recovered—and resolved that the next time she asks her friends over for lunch, she will make sure they understand she’s not on the menu.

As for me, top on my wish list for Santa is that this up-and-down economy of ours will settle into a period of sustained growth so all of our neighbors can go back to work, our homes will retain their value, and our retirement accounts will grow.

Most of the framework is in place for this to happen. We just need a little help, a nudge you might say, to get things moving in the right direction.

The principal nudge might come from settling with Saddam, who once again seems to be using sleight of hand with his disclosures, thereby pushing us harder toward a military confrontation.

Markets don’t like wars, even short, easy ones. Certainly we can expect the markets to go down a bit—and if they behave as they have in the past, recover nicely if victory is a likely outcome, as it was in 1991. Nevertheless, war brings uncertainty, making forecasting a real shot in the dark.

Santa, let’s see if we can get this over with, hopefully without any shooting, for the benefit of everyone, including all of our neighbors in the Mideast!

That said, I would like to pass along a Christmas meditation that came from an Internet friend. Hard as I and my staff have tried, we can’t come up with a more accurate source than “Anonymous.” (One site attributes it to a Greek Orthodox priest, but he denies authorship.)

• If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead, and a place to sleep . . . you are richer than 75% of this world.
• If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish some place . . . you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.
• If you woke up this morning healthy . . . you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
• If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation . . . you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
• If you can attend a religious service without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death . . . you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.
• If your parents are still alive and still married . . . you are very rare, even in the United States.
• If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful for what you have . . . you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.
• If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them, or even touch them on the shoulder . . . you are blessed because you can offer a healing touch.
• If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore . . . you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.
• Have a good day, count your blessings, and pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are.

Wishing you a happy and joyous season!