Gratitude – best of gifts this Christmas

THE EDITOR: Christmas in Trinidad, as anyone of a certain age would remember, is, or was, the time of the year when Trinidadians truly came together, to celebrate that unspoken goodwill and Christmas cheer.

And it is this collective embrace of positivity that reaches out to me now: I urge my fellow citizens to focus on the many things we have, and the many things we managed to keep intact, like simple traditions and neighbourliness, like sharing toys with the child down the road, like taking someone to see the decorations at the malls.

Above all, let us remember that Christmas is not a time when everyone can celebrate as they are reeling from some tragedy – personal or otherwise.

Many of our citizens have been victims of crime, have suffered because of the decaying economic situation, or been caught in the turbulent social situation. But many of us have been spared these trials, and I would like to urge those who have come through the year unscathed to remember, with compassion, those who have not. Let us try to touch their lives in some meaningful way.

These small interventions need not be grand gestures. They can be small donations of money, goods or even time, to lighten the burdens of those less fortunate. We can give things, but we can also share sympathy or show empathy. And for those of us who are able, we could contribute creatively, either with longer-term actions, donations, or needed interventions.

The Christian nativity story begins with a man and his pregnant wife travelling by foot in a foreign country. They depended solely on the kindness of strangers. Their son would be born in a manger, among the animals, as there was no room in the inn. That child would be the person who would uplift the world in unimaginable ways.

From these humble people, in this humble place, came the first Christian, the saviour whose life and teachings would speak to us across 2,000 years.

I would like to encourage our citizens to take this tale to heart. For those who can, and are able, go and find the humble people who have so little and remember that is from these poor people that our salvation comes. Remember that the vast majority of us who came to this island came as poor travellers – some voluntary, some coerced.

Helping others is a gift with many dimensions. Apart from giving to those who need it, which is encouraged by all religions, the act of giving activates positive reactions within our own psyches and lives. Looking into the lives of those less fortunate should remind us with just how blessed many of us are.

There is no greater antidote to despair than the returns from giving: gratitude, the realisation that despite the bad things we live with, we have the ability to still be happy, and to make others happy. This is what I would like to leave my fellow citizens on this Christmas Day.

Let us, despite the very real dangers of our environment, and the deficiencies we live with every day, choose to help, choose to make things better, and choose to remain optimistic that better is coming.

Two thousand years ago, through the kindness of a few, the baby Jesus was born and grew to adulthood. His was a divine ordinance to deliver man. Let us be counted as a part of those few – those who helped strangers, those who allowed the future to land. Think, this Christmas, of the baby or babies who are still in the crib, or not yet in the crib, who will change the world for the better if helped by our kindness.

This Christmas, let us reinvoke tidings of goodwill and kindness to our fellow man. Let this gentle approach suppress the daily torment that most of us are forced to see and live with in TT. Let us be inspired by the Christ child to serve others, to give freely and, above all, to show immense gratitude for what has been given to us.

Merry Christmas to all my fellow citizens.

DINESH RAMBALLY

MP, Chaguanas West