Home for the Holidays

"Be right, and then be easy to live with, if possible, but in that order." Ezra Taft Benson

The song tells us it's the most wonderful time of the year. Thanksgiving is tomorrow and Christmas is a month away. It should be the best of times, but for some families it is the worst of times. I was talking to a man who told me he had eight family members (in addition to himself and his wife) staying with him in their rather small home. He laughed and said that things were fine "so far." Not every family is something out of a Norman Rockwell painting, but really can't we all try to get along? For some, the obvious answer is no. Holidays seem to magnify what is the best and the worst in us. Thanksgiving and Christmas should be a time when we set aside our differences, if even just for the duration of a meal, and celebrate what truly is important in life.

The world will not come crashing down if you have cake instead of pie, or if you celebrate the holiday at someone else's home or even in a restaurant. Of course, family traditions are wonderful, but for some people my age, our inflexibility can make everyone miserable. So what are the holidays really all about anyway? What is really sacred? Friends and family and those who mean the world to us. Can't we all just get along?

Susan