Christmas offers the best chance all year to see two ways of life for what they are. We're encouraged to make Christmas about us- or, more accurately, encouraged to make Christmas about our children. We are encouraged to buy them stuff. But if we make that the center of the holiday, we help school them in the notion that transcendent joy comes from things. If, instead, you emphasize others- making presents with your kids, spreading seed to the birds and beasts, visiting the nursing home- it exposes them to the other truth, gives them some chance to see where real joy lies. ~Bill McKibben :: Hundred Dollar Holiday
