Merry Christmas!

I started being a volunteer tutor for kids in a public school when I was a sophomore in the university. It was no ordinary goody-goody task that went like a walk in the park. It was a big commitment - more like a walk in the most unlikely places in the city. Sometimes I would really have to miss hanging out with friends on a Saturday afternoon, or sacrifice some hours of study just to be with the rowdy kids waiting for their kuya to teach them Math and English. And up to now, during weekends, I still find time for these little angels. It's truly tiresome, but all worthwhile.

This is my eye-opener to a world so divided between extremes. As Christmas is just around the corner, I hear my friends talking about how excited they are for shopping, or how eager they are for their party in a five-star hotel, or where their families are spending Christmas eve. But when I go to the slum areas I see kids running around without slippers asking me if my house was also demolished as theirs, I see families living in shanties uncertain of what to eat for their next meal, I see people living in dehumanizing poverty.

It's not my intention to accuse the well-off of moral indifference and blatant selfishness, nor to sound utterly cynical. I only wanted to express how I see society is so full of contradiction. In so many times, how I want to be insensitive so as not to feel distressed. But reality hurts, it slaps me in the face.

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When I was young, how I loved Christmas. Aside from the sound of ubiquitous carols that never failed to lighten my feelings, there are also a lot of food (it's fattening season), rare family reunions, and, between Christmas and New year, is my birthday.

Christmas is truly fun, but there's more to it than this. Each one should not forget why gifts are given, why there a star atop the Christmas tree, why we wake up early and attend misa de gallo (gallo is Spanish for rooster), why we celebrate Christmas at the first place. Besides gifts, food, and fun, Christmas is Christ's birth.

It's sad though how people tend to forget or care much less about this. While the greeting "Happy Holidays" has become a convention, I still prefer the old way that goes "Merry Christmas (and not X-mas)".

Merry Christmas to all!