On December 10th, the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was most-deservedly awarded to Mulala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was targeted and shot in the neck and forehead by the Taliban for standing up for education. She has made a remarkable recovery and has got right back up for education rights for all. If anything, she has only got stronger, as it goes when what happens doesn’t kill you.
Many believed she actually deserved the honor last year when, on her 16th birthday and the first Mulala Day, a day to celebrate the power of education, she gave her speech to the Youth Assembly at the UN and spoke of peace, opportunity and education. She went so far as to say, “I do not even hate the Talib who shot me. Even if there is a gun in my hand and he stands in front of me. I would not shoot him. This is the compassion that I have learnt from Muhammad-the prophet of mercy, Jesus christ and Lord Buddha. This is the legacy of change that I have inherited from Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. This is the philosophy of non-violence that I have learnt from Gandhi Jee, Bacha Khan and Mother Teresa. And this is the forgiveness that I have learnt from my mother and father. This is what my soul is telling me, be peaceful and love everyone.”
And we can’t even stand someone saying “Merry Christmas” to us.
I won’t go as far as to say there’s a War on Christmas. Not with every storefront and advertisement showcasing the holiday, but it’s disconcerting that the stand has been made at saying “Merry Christmas,” stopping the festivities of the holiday short at the point of an actual human interaction and connection, which is what Christmas is really all about. And in the holiday season, that meaning is singular to Christmas.
While the other holidays of the season are joyful celebrations, they’re not inherent celebrations of joy itself. Kwanzaa is a celebration of the African heritage and culture. Hannukah, a commemoration of a people’s victory over oppression and a miracle that told them they weren’t alone in their darkest days. But Christmas is a celebration of the man who lived for peace and love for mankind. It’s about joy and goodwill for all. Are we so cynical, so angry that we can’t hear that message unless it’s delivered in the exact way we want to hear it? Do we have to get so disgusted that someone would wish us well while daring to invoke God in the process? Is this an appropriate response to well-wishes: “How dare they try to put their religion on me. If they knew me, they wouldn’t be wishing me a Merry Christmas.” Because maybe that’s the point. If they knew us, maybe they wouldn’t want to wish merriment upon us.
All year, everyday, complete strangers pass through our lives. We sit next to them on the train. We let them pass in a tight hallway. We hold a door. We just make simple accidental eye contact on the street. But how often do we wish someone joy or goodwill, or anything? How often do we want to? We don’t know these people. What if she leaves her phone on during movies and ruins the show for everyone? What if he drives along the shoulder to bypass traffic and then cuts off everyone who respectfully waited? What if she smokes right by the entrance and blows smoke in everyone’s face before throwing her finished butt on the ground, making her garbage someone else’s problem? What if he hits his kids? What if they’re just bad at heart and will return any overture of goodwill and humanity with animosity and disgust? Simply, what if they don't deserve it?
I wish it were easier to be more forgiving. To overlook cracks in morality. To be able to say to a Talib who shoots up a school, “I know it’s not your fault. I know you just do what you do because you’ve been kept in the dark in order to be manipulated and used as a pawn to carry out evil.” But that’s not the world we live in. The existence of that evil poses a very real physical and symbolic threat to the way of life we want to lead. Allowing that evil to exist inspires more evil that combats the good forgiving it inspires. It undermines the best of us. And so we have to be vigilant. While aspiring to reach the example set by Nobel Laureates, we still have to keep our guard up. And it’s exhausting.
No one wants to fight the good fight. They fight because they have to. But it gets hard to keep getting back up when you’re knocked down so often. So can’t we just give ourselves a break, even if only for a short time? Can’t we just be allowed to assume the best of everyone and have our temporary, unconditional love for mankind rewarded with a smile? A “Thank you?” The warm feeling that we can actually get to that good place, instead of getting a sneer and a lump of coal in our stomach that tells us humanity is doomed? Can’t we even just pretend for a little while that we’re already there? That there’s hope for humanity and the battle isn’t fruitless?
So with that in mind: to the Jewish people, I wish you a Happy Hannukah. To the Africans of the world, a Happy Kwanzaa. And to everyone, a Merry Christmas… And a Happy Mulalamas.
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