It snowed last night. Enough for the tree tops and boughs to glisten under this morning\u2019s pale blue sky. All is calm in this perfect winter postcard, just like the Christmas Eves I used to know. And I dream of this peaceful feeling lasting beyond all the next mornings\u2019 light. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s certainly a lot more to the holiday season than snowy images. But for some reason my Christmas memories wouldn\u2019t be the same without recalling the quiet beauty of a landscape decorated with freshly fallen snow. <\/p>\n
Maybe that\u2019s why the Bing Crosby version of Irving Berlin\u2019s \u201cWhite Christmas\u201d has always been one of my favorite carols. First performed in 1941, it\u2019s also happens to be the bestselling song ever recorded. <\/p>\n
All of Berlin\u2019s \u201csongs sound as fresh today as when they were written,\u201d Stephen Holden wrote in a 1987 New York Times tribute to the Russian-born American composer. And he described White Christmas as evoking \u201ca pure childlike longing for roots, home and childhood \u2014 that goes way beyond the greeting imagery.\u201d <\/p>\n
Nostalgia is a curious thing. It\u2019s the sentimental first layer of the past that covers up all sorts of memories we\u2019d rather not visit. Snow itself can act in a similar idyllic manner by temporarily covering the hard edges of the world outside. And the way it absorbs surrounding noises helps fulfill the \u201call is calm, all is bright\u201d promises of Christmas Day. <\/p>\n
Fresh snow isn\u2019t just a holiday blessing. It can evoke a charming sense of peace almost anytime. Alexandra Indira Sanyal felt it one day in February 2003 while a foot of snow was falling in Boston. The second grader stayed home from school and wrote a simple poem about it. <\/p>\n
\u201cSnow so fluffy and soft. <\/em><\/p>\n I like to run and jump into it. <\/em><\/p>\n It leads to peace and love. <\/em><\/p>\n Snow stops war <\/em><\/p>\n and fights <\/em><\/p>\n that lead to killing. <\/em><\/p>\n So snow, come today.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n While Boston was snowed under, Sam Hamill was busy organizing the Poetry Against the War movement. The American poet had been invited to the White House by First Lady Laura Bush to participate in a symposium on \u201cPoetry and the American Voice.\u201d It was supposed to celebrate the works of Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson. But the event was canceled when word of the poet\u2019s protest reached the White House.<\/p>\n \u201cI am asking every poet to speak up for the conscience of our country,\u201d Hamill had written to his friends and colleagues. He might have been hearing John F. Kennedy\u2019s praise for poets when the president honored Robert Frost more than 50 years go. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cWhen power narrows the areas of man\u2019s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses, for art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstones of our judgement.\u201d<\/p>\n Young Sanyal was certainly not in the same class as Frost. But the child did touch Hamill\u2019s nostalgic wish for all to be forever calm. He included her untitled poem into the anthology he presented to the White House on the day the symposium had been scheduled. <\/p>\n Of course, neither snow nor poetry stopped the invasion of Iraq. It was worth trying though because poetic words of peace and calm made a difference once before. Even though it lasted just a day, the famous Christmas Truce of World War I began with German soldiers singing from their trenches \u201cstille nacht \u2026 heilige nacht.\u201d <\/p>\n Ryan Harvey is a British veteran from the Iraq war who honored those soldiers with a song titled \u201cThe Christmas Truce.\u201d In the last stanza he asks us to imagine four question facing them that night, the last one which has meaning for us all a century later. <\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t fight, we won\u2019t fight<\/em><\/p>\n Will this courage last past Christmas night?<\/em><\/p>\n And what will they say in hundred years?<\/em><\/p>\n When they look back on what happened here?<\/em><\/p>\n What are we gonna do come the morning light?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n May we all experience this white Christmas as merry and bright. And in the dawn of the days to come, may we find courage from the poets who speak out in hopes of creating a lasting peace on earth. <\/p>\n \u2022 Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It snowed last night. Enough for the tree tops and boughs to glisten under this morning\u2019s pale blue sky. All is calm in this perfect winter postcard, just like the Christmas Eves I used to know. And I dream of this peaceful feeling lasting beyond all the next mornings\u2019 light. There\u2019s certainly a lot more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-15284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15284"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}