Dear Readers,
Here is the editorial I wrote for this week's Stowe Reporter, our local weekly. I want to share this small attempt to come to grips with Newtown:
A dark cloud
blew over the nation last week during this time typically reserved for joy and
good will. Our hearts and prayers go out to the lost ones, their families, the community
of Newtown, which will never be the same. We each would lift them up ourselves
if we could. But we can’t.
There are
too many dark clouds, too many goodbyes, too many tragedies, too many losses
beyond words. From 9/11 to Newtown. We are weary for peace.
In our town,
our own small New England town, as safe as a postcard, as pretty as a pin, the
pain of Newtown hits us with poignancy. For many in Stowe the schools are the
center of the universe. The music and singing from the elementary school
holiday concert still rings in our ears; the sight of neighbors and friends
pouring into the school gym, smiles from ear to ear, are fresh in our minds. It
is unimaginable, what happened to Newtown. But it happened.
And now we
come toward Christmas, which frames this season. Whether we take it as Gospel
or parable, the story of the baby born in a manger is at its core a hard one. A
husband and wife forced to sleep in a barn, she about to give birth. The baby
is born among the farm animals and is Holy. The baby brings hope and joy to a
hard world.
As difficult
as life can be there is always hope. Even Pandora, after making the
world-altering mistake of releasing evil from the mythical box, saw one last
spirit enter the world. Hope.
So in the
shadow of darkness we turn to light and hope. We pray, even those of us who normally
would not. We pray for Peace on Earth. Good will toward men.
This message
is not just words. In our communities we experience the message every day. In a
recent example, through the drive of one business owner in the village of Stowe,
on a recent Saturday the people of an entire town ‘shopped ‘til they dropped’
to raise money for a little girl fighting cancer (and our prayers and wishes
this holiday go out to you as well, brave young Rowan).
We all
volunteer for something, raise money for someone, give to something. We make it
a point to know each other, to be kind to each other, to watch out for each
other. We water our neighbor’s gardens during summer breaks and take care of
each others pets during holidays the year round; our kids live out of any of
our kitchens; we are quick to make a meal and bring it when someone is sick or a
parent is away or a family loses a loved one. We trust each other. Maybe now
more than ever we will look to each other for the brightness in the world.
During this
time, when good and bad are cast in sharp relief, when we are all thinking of
the children, I want to turn to Linus Van Pelt to find light under the dark
cloud. Linus is, some of us will know, Charlie Brown’s best friend.
At the end
of “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” disaster strikes Charlie yet again. The small
tree he brought to the pageant cannot bear the weight of even one Christmas
ornament. It falls over. Charlie believes he’s killed it. Pandemonium reigns.
Quiet Linus, ignoring the chaos around him, takes center stage, and in a
strong, small voice, quotes from Scripture. His speech ends with this: "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'"
He then
leaves the stage, wraps his truly cherished security blanket around the tree
and the tree springs up. The children respond to Linus’s gesture and decorate
the tree, which springs back to life and shines with light, with hope.
Whether
we are believers or take the words just as meaningful parable, they ring so true
this year. We crave peace on earth, good will toward all.
David Rocchio lives, works and writes in Stowe, Vermont. (c) 2012 David Rocchio
