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Merry Christmas

Dec 15, 2020 Letters

Dear Editor,

It is the middle of December, still ten days to Christmas Day, but I treat myself: may all my fellow citizens experience a true Christmas Season starting from now, if not earlier. Because I am where I am, and who I am, this is extended to those who harbour hate in their hearts, be it for me or for any other. May the good tidings of the 2020 Christmas Season and spirit surround and lift up all; may there be joy to the world of Guyana, that is of Guyanese.

Today, I help myself to holiday goodies earlier than later, since this time, it is really of a celebration of two in one. Last year, the bottom fell out of December from an early hour, which I will not taint this moment with, except to say that instead of the traditional festivities, there were the furious frenzies, of a kind we know all too well. I will not singe this moment of sharing, of what is spiritual to me, with reference to the political or prejudicial. The time is too sacred to sully it with recollections of what still sizzles (furiously) and is now celebrated (rapturously).

I prefer to say, as we shop and soak in the scenes, let us be wary of those hanging out and shopping for the innocent and naïve, the careless and thoughtless. For, because of our oil (it is not ours, come to think of it, but the sole inheritance of the political class), there are the schemers and the deceivers, who come to separate us from the little we have. And, in the streets, the locals waiting to rush forward with their preying. The environment is conducive: already the streets are clogged, with traffic inching along in tortured crawls. May the silver bells in the city fuse smoothly with the rainbow of colors and sounds that are so much part of the treks and travels reduced to the trickle of trudges. Yes, the city sidewalks and busy streets are alive and active, with the hum of excited voices and music in the air.

This much I observe from my rare forays into the heart of the city, where there is much pent-up energy (stashed away money, too, by those who do have it, and not from constitutionally permissible labours), so many jammed vehicles and jostling bodies (pandemic or otherwise), so much yearning for so many of the out of reach things in this hard guava season of Guyanese life. Some will settle for even one cracked front tooth, if there are two, then no refusal will occur.

I hope that we will be generous this year, this season of goodwill, where fellowship will ascend acrimony. I think of those three kings that came and comes the wonder of how and what we could be, if we only but tried. We could be three kings in one, black and brown and the rest in the perfect blends in between. There is so much to like about Christmas, which is why I came back here every time at this time for decades in what I dare to call faithful pilgrimage. Like those humble shepherds, there was coming to the stable, if just for the splendor of the promise.

That is what we Guyanese have, should reach to touch and cherish, even when our sense of feeling has been numbed. It is what this special time does to me: the disappointments and angers recede, the disillusions disappear. There is a season under the sun for everything. It is this different one now, of peace on earth and goodwill to all men, even those who care not, who shrug off disdainfully, and who turn their backs sullenly. As they do so, I still come forward, for it is how I am made. It is what I think we need here, holiday season or no holiday season. It is what can carry through the travails, past the obstacles, beyond the darkness, in this dark night of the national soul. As Guyanese, as people, as individuals, we must see light, be about light. We must light up our world. I try. Peace and goodwill. It is Christmas time in the city and the whole country, too. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine on one and all. I believe, not in pathetic earthly princes, but in something else altogether. To all citizens: have a jolly holiday.

Yours truly,
GHK Lall

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