Paved With Good Intentions

NZ Truth, Issue 1151, 22 December 1927, Page 4

Paved With Good Intentions

» THERE seems to be something wrong about Christinas. We find ourselves saying the same things, thawing a little of our natural conceit, bending m<s'o m friendliness, making good resolutions — and just as rapidly breaking them. There is nothing wrong with that, of course. The "something wrong" is the fact that it takes a Christmas and seemingly only a Christmas to make us do these little temporary things — these little acts that gladden our own hearts as well as those of others. Our insincerities are apt to obtrude themselves at this grand period of the year— grand because of its significance. Why should we be hypocrites, though? We cannot blind our eyes or our conscience to the spirit of Christmas, but that spirit was not meant for periodical indulgence. It was meant for all times. Our goodfellowship towards one another should not be an "event" only to be anticipated once a year; our glow of good feeling should not be so shortlived as to have spent itself by the time the following Christmas comes round, and therefore bo replenished like a storage battery that has run down. If Christmas means anything to anybody, anybody who really counts m this world, will show the spirit of Christmas — toleration, fairness, sympathy and charity — not merely now, but the whole j r ear round. And why not?