Take Joy!

December 16, 2015 | Originally published in the Laconia Daily Sun

During the Christmas season, New York becomes a wonderland. Lighted trees lining the avenues sparkle as the day turns to dusk, store windows are transformed into dioramas with stories that come alive, and beauty prevails. The music is magnificent. Young boys dressed in red robes and ruffled white collars joining the men in the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys with their perfectly pitched voices singing Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. The Choir of Trinity Wall Street performing Handel’s Messiah in the church that miraculously survived the attack on the World Trade Center, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, one of the largest churches in the world, filled with hundreds of people for a Christmas concert that gives one the sense of being in a truly sacred space that is open to everyone. Joy to the world.

But this year there is an undercurrent of fear and anger I hear it from friends who are journalists and writers. There is the fear of another terrorist attack in New York City. There is anger at the divisiveness of the rhetoric we cannot escape.

Looking to the north, from the window in my apartment, I can see a mosque. 
Looking west the beautiful round stained glass window of a synagogue can be seen, in a building that is huddled in between a row of townhouses. There is a Catholic church on the street where the subway entrance I use several times each day is located.

One morning I stopped in and attended a Mass at the Catholic church as I was walking back from Central Park. It was clear this is a neighborhood church offering solace to people coming and going in their busy daily lives.

In 1993, when the mosque first opened, I visited with a friend who is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and a practicing Lutheran clergyman. We interviewed Dr. Abdel-Rahman Osman, then the Imam of the new mosque. We asked him how long Muslim people have been in the United States and he said: “Since, some of Columbus’ crew would have come from Morocco, we can say that Muslims have been here for 500 years.” And, even though this was years before September 11, we asked if he could distinguish “Muslim fundamentalists from other Muslims.” He said: “The term is now used incorrectly by the media. A Muslim fundamentalist is one who meets the five fundamental spiritual obligations of Islam. … Thus, any person who kills or inspires terror is not following the fundamental way of Islam and should not be identified as a Muslim fundamentalist. They are the very opposite of fundamentalists.”

When I mentioned to a friend these places of worship centered in close proximity, she suggested we talk with people at the mosque, the synagogue and the church to see if we could gather people in their communities and form a circle along the sidewalk with everyone holding hands in a visual display of unity. Imagine what a message this would send.

Yoko Ono has two exhibitions currently on view in art galleries in Chelsea titled Riverbed. I attended the openings last week. There are stones on the floor and everyone is encouraged “To choose a stone and hold it until your anger and sadness have been let go.” There are broken cups and we are encouraged to: “Mend with wisdom, mend with love. It will mend the earth at the same time.” “Imagine everyone living in peace,” implored John Lennon, before his death.

I will be in Laconia with my family for what will be an enchanting Christmas. They always are. The house will have been transformed with boughs of greens and holly. The Christmas tree fills the room and is trimmed with beautiful ornaments, each one representing something that has been meaningful in our lives. The ornaments are packed away with care and then removed one by one for a few moments of reflection and memory before being placed on the tree. Traditions continue, even if we don’t find dolls and drum sets, trucks and plastic robots under the tree. There is still something about waking up on Christmas morning and finding a stocking next to the fireplace. Perhaps those sounds on the roof during the night really were a sleigh?

This year, in New York, I have a few boughs of greens and one solitary white bird hanging from one branch. I look at that bird each morning and think. What if. What if one day every person got up, put down their guns, forgot about their angry rhetoric and began to sing. Then went across to their neighbors and invited them to join in. By the end of the day the sound of singing would be heard across the globe. People would be smiling and laughing. Everyone, for just one day could just Take Joy!

This year, as we celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah, let’s think about what each of us can do to make the world a more peaceful place. On certain Sunday evenings, Trinity Church holds a Compline service. It is just a half hour of music that encourages you to “end the day in a way so old it’s new. Compline is an ancient half-hour candlelit service featuring music that is the church’s bedtime prayers, and marking the transition from day into night.” The Compline is meant as a transition before the beginning of the week, as a way to reflect, renew, and refresh.”

Let us all take a moment to reflect, renew and refresh. Joy to the World.