2023-12-24

Dear Gloria Shayne and Noel Regney:

In a season seemingly full of particularly disheartening international crises, one wonders if one should find solace in the song you wrote in the shadow of an especially frightening time more than six decades ago... or if one should feel a collective sense of repentance for the heartbreak in a lack of progress since then beyond "...thoughts and prayers...".

Your "Do You Hear What I Hear?" was more than a few recollections of that Holy Night millennia ago this evening.  You reminded that each of us has opportunities to cause others to be more aware of something -- important in its own right -- that otherwise might not be seen... might not be heard... might not be known.  The distractions of the immediate tangibles often cause one (not least those having/wanting power) to miss the subtle, meaningful, influential, essential intangibles.

Not least of these intangibles is the "peace" the powerful insist all pray for... but without significantly addressing the foundations upon which peace resides.  One wonders, for example, if a prayer for peace is wasted if it is not accompanied by a collective effort to make better... calmer... fuller... the lives of those under duress (and to acquire an empathetic understanding from them).  The immediate objective does not even have to be "world peace" -- it might be something, simply internal for an acquaintance (if not a cherished, loved friend) deep in their own discord.

Though the powerful are more likely to have available to them resources to bear towards best for all, the last verse of your song reminds that relying on One to provide good will and banishment of our shadows perhaps requires more from us than a rallying cry.  Our ongoing longing for Joy and Peace to all needs our own, individual contribution toward and nurturing of those worldwide (and local... and personal...) objectives.  Whether God's Love in the World is seen or heard or known by us, it needs to begin with and in us to be seen and heard and known -- and felt -- by others.  May your song be less of an annual reminder... and more of a turning point for the ages....