Gift of understanding
The gifts exchanged, the parties held, the carols sang and our parents and elders giving us their hands to bless us are all in line with our aspirations for the people of this world to end enmity and to work instead to end hunger and exploitation across sectors.
Hours before Christmas Day 2022 as I hammered out this piece as extreme deadline gnawed, the Daily Tribune's editorial office was alive and as noisy as any other busy news day.
There's lechon and pancit to partake of, courtesy of our generous bosses W and Bee, as John Lennon's "Happy Christmas (War is over)" and "Do they Know it's Christmas?" blared one after the other from Komfie's tabletop sound blaster.
Outside, the world has slowed down, except at nearby Cash and Carry (and in all the other malls, I presume) where I earlier picked up some chocolates and spirits to spread some Yuletide cheers.
With the World and Metro Manila pages decked to be closed ASAP and sent, with the rest of our Christmas edition, to bed earlier than usual, give this Contrarian the gift of understanding for whatever it is, I am able to cobble up here in 15 minutes.
Not just for me, but for all the hardworking men and women of Tribune who, since the pandemic started, never worked a single day from home, always in the office or on the field to bring the news to you our dear readers.
The pressmen, too, must wrap up work at the Intramuros printing press by 7 p.m. so that our men who deliver good old print to newsstands and our growing base of subscribers can still catch the Misa de Gallo and be with loved ones for Noche Buena.
As I greet you with a truly "Merry Christmas," let us pause to remind ourselves that we are all blessed by our Lord, Jesus Christ, with the gift of life and the capacity to love in a world that is drowning in hatred, evil and strife, while trying to get out of a pandemic that has already killed millions worldwide.
Much as I would like to have a traditional piece of news from the Vatican to bid our savior Jesus a happy birthday, there were none from our wire service provider Agence France-Presse, probably because we have a sick Pope out there. What a disappointment.
What we have are downers on North Korea firing two more ballistic missiles, Russia's madman Vladimir Putin finally admitting it's "war" he's waging in Ukraine, and the Donald — the Trump, not the Duck — selling pathetic NFTs of himself as an astronaut and, the gal, Superman himself.