6 - Sunday, December 25, 1988 - North Shore News INSIGHTS The two-month love affair called Xmas BAD-MOUTHING SANTA is getting out of hand. More and more latter-day Scrooges go around moaning that the celebration of love and hope has degenerated into a two- month commercial orgy. I think they’re missing a point. A whole lot of points, in fact. If Christmas is the season of love, then that eight-week marathon of planning, remembering, spending and socializing between Halloween and New Year’s packs an awful lot of the stuff. Anyone who pretends that battl- ing the elements, the shopping mall hordes and the checkout line-ups week after week to hunt and buy gifts and treats for others isn’t a labor of love needs to see a counsellor about hang-ups. It’s a labor of love even if you happen to be able to afford the goodies. There's the time-consuming chore of gift wrapping, when you're perfectly aware that each 10-minute masterpiece of your handiwork will be ripped to shreds in three seconds. If that isn’t love, why not save yourself the hassle and settle for brown paper bags? Christmas cards are a love story in themselves. Remembering people you en- joyed long ago but never now see. Searching for their once-a-year addresses. Penning suitable little update messages. Writing envelopes. Lining up to buy stamps. And doing it all over again at the last minute for the ones you - forgot, but who didn’t forget YOU Love is wading through a sea of mud in a December monsoon to buy the tree. It’s risking life and limb on a wobbly ladder, putting up the lights. It’s hours of kitchen overtime for Mom. It’s your cans for the Food Bank, your cheque to the Christmas Bureau and the bills you stuff into the Sally Ann kettle. All aimed at making others happy, not just yourelf. Is anyone REALLY trying to tell me with a straight face that love doesn’t blossom during our “commercial orgy?"’ The fact that it all makes the stores happy as weil is irrelevent. LASERS’ GIFTS TO ONE NEEDY FAMILY (see item)...clockwise from left: Carla Johnson, Tammi Jongeneel, Cathy Heyes, Catrional Morrison, Cathy Howard, Elisa Galibois-Barss, Lynn Hayter, Kristin I’m sure the merchants in the bazaar where the Three Wise Men picked up their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh welcomed the business, too. It’s still from YOU and your wallet that the love flows — as the January bills will reassure you. And don’t forget, either, that without the 30 per cent contribution that the Christmas bonanza makes to their annual take, many stores wouldn’t stay afloat at all during the rest of the year. However unintentionally, ree \ 4 reunte TUe* eae BINES: Charieton, Fiona Black, Tanja Lukah, Julie Wardlaw. Peace, goodwill when people all over the world celebrate the O N THIS traditional Christmas Day holiday, birth of Christ, we should all take a moment to reflect on the meaning of the day: peace on earth, goodwill towards man. In the highly-charged, controversial arenas of business, politics and scientific research — where various countries race for the upper hand, struggling for the ultimate power — conflict and confrontation are the order of the day. Whether it is the domination of one man over another, one country over another, one religion over another or one race over another, human beings have warred with each other since the beginning of time, always trying to impose one philosophy upen another, trying to manipulate others to think and act a certain way, using brutal means to accomplish selfish ends. From the slaughter of North American Indians by European settiers staking claim to the land, to the slaughter of Jews in Hitler’s Germany in an attempt to exterminate s race, to the mindless wars between rivalling countries trying to overtake each other, too much time, energy and money have been spent on promoting and fostering ill feelings and conflict — which could see man’s eventual downfall. Only on special days of the year, such as Christmas, do we collectively nurture a sense of oneness — loving our neighbors, giving to strangers. But if we try hard, together we could spread peace and goodwill to all the days of the year. Merry Christmas all year long! My Yoon Tees Gat. My Publisher ........... Peter Speck Managing Editor... . Barrett Fisher Associate Editor ..... Noel Wright Advertising Director . Linda Stewart North Shore Naws, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph tt of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by Narth Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited materiat including manuscripts and pictures which shauld be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. you’re heaping real love on THEM as well when you empty your Piggy-bank and head out Christmas shopping. Travelling hopefully, says the old proverb, may be better than arriving. Getting there is half the fun. And hope, as well as love, is still the essence of the Christmas weeks. Especially when the shortest day approaches, signalling that spring, though still distant, is at least on its way again. Cynics and sourmouths who would confine Christmas to 48 hours on December 24-25 have it all wrong. The two-month Christmas adds up to 60 further days for people to indulge in love and hope. And don't they ever. In fact, given the world’s crying need for love and hope, maybe November 1 is actually a bit late to start. But then we mustn’t en- courage the Scrooges any more. just for the moment! ene CLOSING SALUTES to some soccer girls and civic employees who know all about Christmas love. For the third year the North Shore Lasers U-14 team has played Santa to a needy North Shore fam- ily — whose details they’re given, but not the name. They collect good used clothes, books, games, food and Stong’s tapes for a free turkey, and each girl buys a gift. When all is wrapped and packed, it’s delivered anonymously to the family on their behalf ... And hats off to those 18 North Van City staffers who donated their time to sell hat chocolate in Waterfront Park during the carol ships sail- past — giving the $510 they raised to the Christmas Bureau. esse WRIGHT OR WRONG: Christmas is also an excellent time to make New Year’s resolutions. It gives you seven extra days to forget them. NEWS photo Nei! Lucente THERE! . THERE! ..... TEN MILES OUT... THAT'S WHERE He MUTRRV POLLUTED OUR OCEAN BY DUMPING MUSTARD GAS SHELIS .... _ | SEWAGE “OUTFALE SHELLFISH . ; ‘THE VOICE OF HOST AleD WEET VANCOUVER * ‘north shore: (SUNDAY « WEONESOAY + FRIDAY 1139 Lonsdate Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 59,170 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday} a SODA DIVISION Display Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom Distribution Subscriptions Fax North Shore owned and managed Entire contents © 1988 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 MEMBER ‘Serhan Nemeapere ot Ameo woe