The following is my first diary as well as my most recent column for the High Springs Herald in North Central Florida. The words to this old carol written by Longfellow got to me when I came across them recently. So I wrote a column around them. Wishing everyone a warm and peaceful Christmas.
I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
The words to this old carol come from a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, written at his home on December 25, 1864. Outside in the larger world, the Civil War raged, now near the end of its fourth year.
I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along th’ unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
To the poet, the lofty sentiments of the usual carols no doubt rang hollow that Christmas day. For him it was an especially dark time. Three years earlier, in 1861, his wife had died in a freak accident. A year later, 1862, his son had been critically wounded in the war.
On Christmas Day in the year 1864, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, sick of war, battered by life’s fortunes, uninspired by the songs of the season, sat down at his writing table to face his demons.
And in despair I bowed my head
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."
Listening to Longfellow’s words, one cannot help but connect them to the present. A war drags on. It is a more distant war than the one of the poet’s time. Returning soldiers speak of the unreality of coming home to a culture disconnected from its war.
They see Americans going about their normal lives: shopping, working, going to movies. They see rabid fans cheering on their favorite sports teams as if nothing else mattered.
Yet the war rages on; it cannot be denied.
Every day suicide bombers deliver mass death in the public squares. Militias and death squads haul people into the streets for public beheading. Snipers, acting as the hand of God, snuff out lives in the blink of an eye. Bullets fly, bombs explode, burned and blown apart bodies show up at morgues or are dumped in mass graves.
Fallen soldiers are sent home in caskets draped with American flags.
Back at the home front, the worst of the fighting occurs on cable news channels.
Pundits of both the left and the right shoot it out over the war’s purpose and direction. Politicians lob vicious talking points at one another like hand grenades.
The American people, meanwhile, appear to have made up their own minds. A strong antiwar sentiment was decisive in November’s election. Recent polls show a growing majority opposing the war.
The seeds of national unity exist. As a people we find common cause in our desire for a solution to this unwinnable war. More and more, we look for truth and wisdom rather than empty rhetoric from our national leaders.
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men."
There was a time, not so long ago, when the United States was a beacon of hope to the world. Somehow we lost that. But we need to get back there. To do that, we need to get past our petty differences.
It cannot simply be about Democrats versus Republicans anymore. Nor can it be about Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, or Buddhists. We are all human beings. Our challenge as citizens of a nation and of the world is to work together to solve problems and create a better life.
I see America beginning, just beginning, to embrace this truth anew. I see our involvement in this war eventually coming to an end, not because of any skillful diplomacy or military action by our government, but because a unified American people demand it.
I see a less arrogant America working with like-minded nations instead of going it alone.
I see America coming home to its ideals.
I see dark days coming to an end.
I see reason for hope.
Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.