Seeing the Light Over the Holidays

by Paul McGoldrick

I was driving downtown Victoria (BC) the other night, on the way to Christ Church Cathedral – where my daughter was the haunting unaccompanied soloist lead of Once In Royal David’s City for the processional at her school’s annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols – when I was pulled up at a set of red lights. Alongside me another car pulled past and made a left turn on the red light without even a hint at stopping. Wow, I thought! Five seconds later the car behind him did exactly the same… Where on earth are the police when they are needed?

It made me think that I must be in a West African city, because not even in Rome do they make that kind of turn on a red light. But, hey, it’s Christmas and you have no option but to assume that all the other vehicles on the road are being driven by people who have just left an office party or after-work confab and probably shouldn’t be behind the wheel.

There was a period when I lived in California when it was quite normal for alcohol and driving to go together, but that changed dramatically – and quite correctly – as the 1980s went on. Now the trend seems to have reversed again and the rarely seen impaired driver sees to have multiplied into an all too regular example. Perhaps the more instant penalties of being caught are not high enough of a deterrent? Or is it simply that people do not understand that they are impaired? Does it really take a death to bring people up short?

The day after this incident I was downtown again visiting a government office. In an underground parkade (isn’t that just an awful Canadian term?) which was rather more full than usual I saw a parking spot which was easily attainable. Another driver actually went around me to take the spot! It was pretty immaterial to me because another spot, much more accessible, opened up almost in front of my car. Such anger!

Is it just me or has the spirit of the holidays deteriorated in recent years? Manners in public seem to have gotten much worse and the whole joie de vivre of the season seems to have trended asymptotically to the commercialism that we are subjected to.

Perhaps the ultimate in a lack of Christmas cheer is the story of a granny who took a tumble at Santa’s grotto in Selfridges department store in London. The court of appeal, with three learned law lords presiding, determined that Santa was entirely to blame. We are sorry, I’m sure, that the lady was injured and her pride was hurt, but what kind of lesson was that for the grandchildren: “do you remember when Gran sued Father Christmas? I knew he wasn’t make believe…”

Yes, we are all probably stressed at this time of the year; it’s inevitable, perhaps, and so many relationships seem to end with the holidays (to avoid buying presents, do you think?) that it makes us stressed even in our own rock-solid ones. It sometimes seems that just getting through these next days without family feuding is an achievement of spectacular levels just in itself.

There is still magic to be had at the holidays, but that doesn’t mean that we should forget those who have little or nothing to give or to be given in the next weeks. Being without a home or a job is neither fun nor fair in a society that is as wealthy as North America still is and we should all strive to do our bit to change that picture as best we can. The New Year will bring its challenges, of course, and it may also bring great things for some. But not if we continue to drive recklessly though red lights that are perfectly well within view.