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Suddenly filled with new hope.
I honestly don’t know why I’m so hopeful.
Last Friday I went to the hospital to have my hernia surgically repaired. They stuffed a hose into my mouth, pumped air into it, sliced it up, sewed it up, and put the torn part back together.
My throat is still pounding. My torso feels like someone drove a locomotive. I slept most of the dark and cold weekend to recover.
Still, I just woke up from my Monday afternoon nap full of happiness and hope.
Don’t get me wrong. There is a lot of despair in our world.
In our personal world, as we head off on vacation, we mourn the loss of loved ones. My family has shared such afflictions this year.
It doesn’t matter who you are. Loss and suffering are part of life, and both are felt most acutely during this time.
We are also concerned about our politics and the anger, division and discomfort among so many people. I know
Our culture is crazy. Many of our young people are depressed and confused and have no idea what they want to be or what they want to be.
Many of our children are harmed by the decisions they make now—the true blessing of life young is to thrive, grow, and become what God intended for you.
I will soon be celebrating my 60th Christmas on Earth, but my childhood was preoccupied with the clearer and simpler things.
Material things were not abundant, but there was much laughter and joy. St. Her Germaine She became tremendously lucid thanks to the nuns of her Catholic school.
The good nuns taught us that there is order in our conflicting universes. It taught me that there is good and evil, and that we are fighting in our hearts every day, everywhere.
They taught me that I have the free will to choose my direction, whether good or bad.
We were taught to pray to align ourselves with goodness and order and to eradicate dishonesty and offense from our existence.
Virtues are implanted in our developing minds, and we should learn to accept and master such virtues as prudence, temperance, courage, and justice.
We were taught that in striving for good, we must shun bad behaviors such as excessive pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and laziness.
These are known as The Seven Deadly Sins — an activity I like to save for the weekend!
It’s very simple. Either you are moving towards light and good, or you are moving away from it. It is the eternal struggle of mankind.
But sadly, our modern world is moving away from light and goodness in many ways.
We deviate from the simplest and most basic truths of human nature—because we accept and encourage as truths the kinds of wrong ideas that only lead to failure and human despair.
In these noisy and confusing times, it’s easy to get depressed.
Still, I’m filled with hope that we can steer ourselves right.
We need prayer, charity, love and hope.
As we celebrate the Christmas season, that’s what I focus on.I pray for my loved ones, my neighbors, my country, and the world.
I don’t know how it will affect me, but all I have is hope. And give all I have.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Tom Purcell, creator of the infotainment site ThurbersTail.com, featuring pet advice learned from beloved Labradors. Thurber is a columnist for his review of Humor for his Pittsburgh Tribune. Email Tom@TomPurcell.com.
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