Christmas

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The Crowe family wishes a peaceful and joyous Christmas season to our friends around the world. I am writing this on Christmas Eve in the living room of a prosperous home, MacBooks scattered in every direction, a pile of brightly wrapped boxes under the piano. (No Christmas tree for years. There is a poinsettia on the piano. Good enough for us.) Fabulous dinner, wacky conversation, good company.

It's likely that those of you reading this have similar comforts. It is all too easy in our moment of warm pleasure to forget those who who do not share what we have. There are so many, invisible from our pleasant homes. The photo is the Salvation Army Tree of Lights in Kiener Plaza. It's about fundraising, of course, and the organization tries hard to manipulate your emotions, but the money goes to important social services (which, heaven knows, the government has largely abandoned in this country). Still, stop and consider. What has each of us done for those in want in this time of celebration? What will we do once the holiday is past?