Christmas light shines in tragedy

Every time Christmas season begins — with all its joy, cheer, decorated homes, “Rudolph” reruns and frosted cookies — I do a bit of inward cringing.

This is not due to any anti-Christmas stance on my part. It’s due to an apparent inevitability: some shockingly sad/tragic occurrence. Sad/tragic enough to give rise to guilt in those of us who find ourselves with nothing more to worry about than whom we’ll include on our Christmas gift lists; how much garland and how many lights we will use to drape our homes; how we’ll find the energy to flit from one holiday party to another; how and when we’ll travel to our relatives’ homes (or to our tropical Christmas vacations).

There always seems to be a mass shooting, a major company layoff, a natural disaster or something equally Christmas-spirit-killing looming on the horizon.

This Christmas, less than two weeks after the latest school shooting, it was multiple tornadoes on Dec. 10. A host of twisters — one of which stayed on the ground for a reported 250 miles — caused unthinkable damage and scores of deaths in six states, including Arkansas. Kentucky was the worst hit.

This news made massive Christmastime layoffs pale in comparison.

(Of course, there’s always bad news nibbling away at the corners of every Yuletide season. We donate food, toys and money to charitable organizations because we know there are those who don’t have the luxury of buying gifts for their loved ones, wrapping them gaily and placing them carefully under a fat Christmas tree. Nor do they have the resources to weigh a richly draped dining-room table down with Roast Beast and all the trimmings for a Christmas Day get-together. They don’t have the luxury of worrying about who will or won’t get along with whom on Christmas. They’d be happy for something to give their children. Any food on the table. Or, for that matter, a dwelling in which to put a table.)

A quick check of the internet revealed that I’m not the only one noting major Christmastime tragedies.

A 2014 article, “10 of The Worst Things That Happened Around Christmas” at listverse.com, showcases a variety of bad Christmastime news throughout history, including Pearl Harbor (1941). (Granted, the writer got a bit weirdly political here, including the “Birth of Karl Rove” in this list.) Another list, “Top Ten Notorious Christmas Tragedies” at toptenz.net, includes the “Christmas race war” that occurred in 1896 in Mayfield, Ky. — which also happened to be among

the hardest tornado-hit towns Dec. 10.

But terrible things happen year-round. Some tragedies, most notably the deaths due to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, seem not to want to end. But there are those of us, Yours Truly included, who fall into this weird belief that tragedy “ought to take a holiday” this time of year. It doesn’t.

And since it doesn’t, it would behoove us all to stay “on call,” as it were … to always be on the alert for instances in which we can donate time, talent and/or treasure to aid those who find themselves in need due to misfortune or tragedy, whether ongoing need or emergency need. In other words, we should donate to/ volunteer with the reputable charitable organization of our choice the other 11 months of the year, not just in December. That increases the likelihood that said organization will be ready to lend aid to those in need at Christmastime.

That being said, I’d like to give kudos to the folks who at least temporarily stopped the flow of our tears or made us smile through them for a moment, in the wake of this year’s Christmastime tragedy. Folks like:

■ The workers at the Monette Manor nursing home in the Craighead County town of Monette … workers who shielded the elderly residents with their own bodies as the tornado there unleashed its fury.

■ Jimmy Finch, the man who drove an hour and 15 minutes from Clarksville, Tenn., to Mayfield, towing a borrowed smoker and laden with food to feed storm victims, members of volunteer cleanup crews and Kentucky Transportation Cabinet workers.

■ Jordan Baize, the man in the video at the msn.com feature titled “Man plays song of praise in his destroyed home.” The video shows Baize, who — after his Kentucky house took a terrible hit, including roof loss — sat at his undestroyed piano and played the gospel number, “There’s Something About That Name,” showing that he still had his faith … and, indirectly, helping to lift the spirits of others.

■ The hundreds of first responders, health workers,

cleanup crews, electricity restorers and others, paid and unpaid, who have been out there mitigating the effects of the unthinkable.

My personal thanks to them for representing the reason for the season … a season that can be anything but holly-jolly, but during which the darkest of the darkness can’t extinguish those who choose to be light.