Christmas Day has different meanings for different people. Whether it's deeply felt hope and joy from a particular religious promise of a savior -- or the hope and joy anticipating spring that arose from the original secular winter solstice festival -- it is a time when we could all pause and contemplate peace and hope for a better tomorrow.
Like the German and British soldiers on the battlefields of World War I, who observed a spontaneous truce on Christmas Day, let's put aside all our differences and declare a day of peace . . . just for today . . . at least.
It was exactly 100 years ago today, December 25, 1914, that the fighting stopped at dawn. Soldiers from both sides cautiously came out of the trenches and crossed the "no man's land" to shake hands, share cigarettes and coffee, and in some places to play soccer with their enemies. It was an incredible event that lasted throughout the day.
If mortal enemies bent on killing each other just the day before -- and again in the days after -- can do it, can we not bridge our divisions, American against American, for a day or two . . . or maybe more?
Ralph
Here is a video put together by students at Brigham Young University to commemorate that Christmas Truce in Flanders Field in 1914.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/24/wwi-christmas-truce-anniversary_n_6356708.html?utm_hp_ref=religion
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