This holiday message is not going to be like the ones that are usually sent at year's end... There will be no we did this, and we did that, and our pet survived (or did not survive, as the case may be)... If there were any accomplishments, however meager or grandiose, family members already know about them... Other folks may not be particularly interested...

Nevertheless, I do have some thoughts I want to share... Specifically, there are a couple of experiences that are deeply imbedded in my memory, short Christmas stories separated in time by some 40 years...

In 1943, on a destroyer somewhere is the South Pacific, those of us in the forward engine room fashioned a crude Christmas tree from available material... It stood about three feet high, mostly metal, with a length of pipe for a trunk and branches of brazing rods attached to the trunk... Strands of hemp, dipped in green paint, were wrapped around the cone-like framework and we had ourselves a tree... From a bale of rags we searched for colorful pieces of cloth and hung them from the branches of our tree... That's it... I can't report that we stood around the tree and sung carols or used the occasion to wish each other well... For one thing, it was too noisy down there, and for another -- well, we just didn't go that route... We just looked at the tree when we came on watch, admired it, and then after a few days it was taken to the fantail and thrown over the side... Gone from view, but never from memory...

Many years later during the Cold War years, I was in Prague... It was the day before Christmas, a bleak, cold day... Prague, in those days was a dreary city, reflecting the miserable conditions imposed by the political situation that existed there... Early that morning as I walked to the train station for my journey to Austria, I was caught up with the sad surroundings... No smiles, no joy, and as I passed a store window, I noticed something -- the sorriest looking Christmas tree I've ever seen... It was straggly, hardly green, with branches bent and broken... There were a few ornaments on the tree, but they were cheap and dull... I couldn't help but thinking that someone had placed this poorly decorated sorry excuse for a Christmas tree in the window as a form of protest for all to see... It appeared to me as a symbol of an existing condition, and if that tree could have talked, it would have pleaded, "Please help."

Later that day, in early evening, I arrived in Salzburg... The change was dramatic... From the conditions in Czechoslovakia to the beauty and cheerfulness of Austria, was truly miraculous... Soon after my arrival in Salzburg, I made my way to the 11th century fort from which one has a lovely view of the city... It was dark, lights were on throughout the city, and a light snow was falling... The rooftops were snow-covered, and it was very, very quiet... I was standing alone, looking down on the city, and I had a strange feeling of power... And then I heard the soft sound of a church bell, and then another, and still another... Louder and louder... All kinds of bells, little ones, big ones, from different parts of the city... Symphonic-like... I was overcome by emotion as I stood there, and I couldn't leave that place until the bells of Salzburg stopped ringing... It was Christmas day... A beautiful experience...