Today is a day that is meant for celebration. In the Pagan tradition, it is called
Yule. It marks the first day of the
Winter season, the shortest day of the year and the time to acknowledge the
coming return of the sun as it grows stronger and the days start to get
longer. In tribute to the new season,
the sun is represented by the Horned One, the male aspect of creation. Often depicted as a stag, the Horned One is a
symbol of strength, protection and the life force in animals (including
humans!). Sometimes he is represented as
the Green Man or Jack-of-the-Green. He arrives today with the gift of the promise of Spring renewal and he is honoured at feasts where
sharing the bounty of the harvests with others is a gesture of appreciation for
all the wonderful blessings received and yet to come.
But for one local couple, this day is a day of sadness and
frustration. J and D woke up to find
their holiday light display destroyed. Many
hours had been invested in decorating their yard with festive and jolly lighted
ornaments for all who passed by to see and enjoy. Then someone
came by in the dark of the night and smashed it all. Snoopy was torn from his dog house. Santa’s legs were both broken. A lamppost was bent in half. And the pretty exhibition was left in a
shambles.
Who does this? Who
thinks that it is okay to ruin things like this? Who has so little regard for their community? For these lovely and festive trimmings did,
indeed, belong to the community. It sickens
and saddens me that this element thrives in Houston. Yet, I must accept that the good always must
come with the bad. That doesn’t mean
that this malicious behaviour must be tolerated. In fact, as a community, we need to make sure
that the culprits are either held responsible, or, at the very least, get the
message – loud and clear – that the rest of us will not sit down and just take
it.
Earlier this year I had to replace a hose holder thingie at the
library after someone broke it and left the pieces laying on the walkway. I was quite put out by this minor bit of
vandalism and my first impulse was to just remove what was left attached to the
building and not replace it. My initial
intention was to drag the hose out of the shed every time I needed it and to
keep it locked up when it wasn’t in use.
Then one of the library board members shared a very powerful bit of
wisdom with me.
“Fix it,” she said.
I thought she was nuts.
Why waste the time, the effort and the money? Isn’t that like inviting the vandals to just
do it again?
“If you fix it,” she said, “you are saying that you care and
you are not going to let them defeat you.”
So I did. I bought a
new hose holder thingie and I attached it to the wall and I hung up the hose
and I refused to be intimidated into being greatly inconvenienced by some knot
head with nothing better to do than ruin things just because.
I hope that J and D will not let themselves be
defeated. If I had the money I would buy
a new display for them. I will do what I
can.
Houston means too much to me, as do the good people in it –
like J and D. We may not be close
friends, but we are fellow community members.
And I for one want to see their beautiful holiday display restored. If anyone else would like to help, please
message me or reply to this blog post. Let’s
give J and D a reason to celebrate!
