[Vision2020] Holiday excess

[Rob Keenan]

All this talk about Christmas trees reminded me of something my sister told
me a couple of days ago. Apparently, she and my mother were sick of the
hassle over getting the tree from the cut-your-own-lot in Gig Harbor and
wanted to "go plastic." My stepdad intervened, insisting on a natural
tree -- the bigger, the better. You see, he seemed to think that the
Christmas tree was an outward symbol of a family's love for Jesus. No tree?
You don't love Jesus. Artificial tree? You're rejecting Jesus. Small tree?
You don't love Jesus very much. So, he told my sister (who attends the same
Catholic high school I did, and still remains very much in shock over the
incident) that the tree had to be the biggest, fullest, greenest, most alive
tree on the lot. Period. End of story.

I have often wondered how we justify holiday excesses, and now with an
example from my own family, I think I'm starting to get the picture. His
heart's in the right place, but somewhere along the lines, the message got
twisted around.

ROB