Our “Home for Life” Is but One of Our Holiday Blessings

It’s easy to complain when you are financially secure, physically safe,  and well-fed … but this year’s approaching holiday season has me thinking, even more than usual, about my many blessings.  And those thoughts produced a list that most of us living in our Charlestown Bubble can readily relate to:

The Atrium cooked your filet mignon medium rare, NOT rare, as you ordered it.  But … helpless, innocent people in Ukrania and Gaza are starving for lack of available, but undelivered, relief.

One of the elevators in your building isn’t working and you had to wait five minutes to ride down to dinner (where you ordered filet mignon). But … people who live in China carry their groceries, dry goods, children and baby strollers … and their own sometimes ailing bodies … up the stairs if they live in a building under nine stories high.  Because … (at least in mid-21st Century Beijing … builders don’t install elevators in such “low rises.”

This month’s bill for snacks and ingredients for simple meals to cook in your apartment is 22% higher than the last time you visited Giant or Weis.  But … many of the disabled, elderly and young families in our area ALSO saw this same rise in prices for staples like potatoes, dry pasta and canned goods.  And they aren’t going to receive the SNAP benefits they rely on until God alone knows when.

Christmas is coming, and you don’t know WHAT new gimmick or trendy piece of clothing you’re going to buy your children and grandchildren.  You MAY have to resort to simply presenting them with gift cards.  But … in SOME neighborhoods,  people are worrying, not about holiday gifts, but whether they will still have a job when December rolls around, or have the money to put together ANY kind of celebratory meal for their family.