In Washington, politicians scamper
home for the holidays away from the fiscal cliff and debates about gun control
as normal people finish gift-buying and travel back to families they left
behind.
After a year of so much
trauma, does good will stand a chance? Can “It’s a Wonderful Life” and umpteen
versions of “A Christmas Carol” lift our spirits?
We can try. I’ll be rinsing
John Boehner from my mind by watching favorite Scrooge Albert Finney in the
1970 musical version. I’ll try to blot out the NRA’s mealy-mouthed press
conference by basking in the old-age blessings of children and grandchildren.
Weekend TV screens will fill
up with football and basketball to replace the contact sports in DC, and there
will be Norman Rockwell serenity in the air.
Whatever happens in the new
Congress after the turn of the year, a pleasurable return to the past will
arrive with the new season of Downton Abbey on January 6 to take us back to the
time of E. M. Forster, who counseled us a century ago:
“Only
connect. Only connect the prose and the passion and both will be exalted, and
human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.”
We
won’t be able to avoid all the fragments, but we can do our damnedest to piece together
a better year than the one we’re leaving behind.
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