View From The Middle
Local Carolers Make The Holidays Seem Better This Year
By Charles Rogers

Last Friday was the first time within recent memory that Christmas carolers visited our office. Thanks to the leadership and good graces of Pastor Christoph Schulze of St. Matthews Lutheran Church and the children of the Great Commission Christian School and its principal, Rhonda Schulkter, we were privy to hear the dulcet young voices serenade us with "Silent Night" and "The First Noel" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and more, as the youngsters lined up and crowded into our anteroom and front office. You can see some photos of the event on page two in this issue.

It indeed made us all not only beholden to the children and the adults with them but it gave us a taste of real holiday spirit. (No, we didn't take the rest of the day off, but our holiday mood was indeed lifted).

Not that the spirit has been missing during the last five or six years; it just didn't seem to be quite so apparent in our community as it had in previous years.

Somehow, the mood here seems to be a little lighter now. Maybe it's the Iraq thing at least appearing to be less pessimistic - less futile; maybe it's people communicating more; perhaps it's that internet allowing us to talk with one another more frequently via e-mail, rather than getting tied up on a long conversation with relatives and friends on the phone. You know how it is: You make the commitment when you dial the number, right? But if you e-mail, you can talk (write), leave the computer to do some chores or watch the big football play, and then go back to talking. What a world!

Lately, I've noticed examples of a holiday neighborliness that I hadn't seen in quite a while.

One in particular struck me when I saw an old man on his way to the post office on East 102nd Street and Flatlands Avenue last week. He was carrying about five packages and just barely balancing them as he tried to cross the street in front of the building.

As luck would have it, there was a car turning from the side street onto the Flatlands Avenue thoroughfare and the driver - also an older man - apparently didn't see the man crossing. It seemed as if the car was heading right at the pedestrian when, all of a sudden, a worker from the post office, who was standing near the door inside the building, saw what was happening and ran into the street with his hand up in the air in a "halt" gesture - just in time to stop what might have been a fatal accident. The pedestrian just kept walking, oblivious to what had just happened, and went inside the building. But the driver stopped his car and got out, reached his hand out to the postal worker and said, "Thank you. And I'm sure that other guy would say thanks if he knew you saved his life." The postal worker just said, "You never know...Oh, uh, Merry Christmas!"

Remember the angel, "Clarence" from the Frank Capra movie "It's a Wonderful Life?" Well, Clarence must have been following the pedestrian around very closely this time.

Another story that has recently turned up in the community is about a woman who lives alone on East 92nd Street near Avenue L had received about five or six of those beautiful, big fruit baskets last year from work - you know, the ones that are full of everything from pineapples to pomegranates and are wrapped in cellophane with a big, red poinsettia on top. Well, she had received so many that she knew she wouldn't be able to eat everything before some of it spoiled naturally, so she decided to bring them to her neighbors.

Ever since then, the neighbors have shared their Christmas with the woman.

That's nice.

I hope you are sharing your holidays with someone.

Have a happy, healthy and blessed Christmas.

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