Christmas At Home
T is a sobering thought that every British citizen over 40 will this week have lived through his ninth war Christmas and every citizen over 26 through his sixth. The figures almost justify the remark of a cynical pacifist, that the nations are so anxious for peace they start fighting for it every five or six years. In fact, every nation in the world wants peace but one; and every government. But as E. M. Forster has pointed out-E. M. Forster who loathes violence more than he loathes anything but tyranny-we have "got to go on with this hideous fight." We will go on with it. But we do not have to go on without a smile. We are human beings and we need not be afraid to remain human beings, laughing when we can and weeping when we must; and we certainly don’t have to weep over our woes all the time. We are caught in a hideous fight, and we have taken some sickening blows. We must suppose that we shall have to take more. The fight will go on, and as long as it lasts it will crowd our minds, control our movements, make nonsense of most of our plans. We shall not escape from it for one hour until it ends-unless we are clods without thoughts or feelings. But we are giving blows as well as taking them, and one day we shall give the blow that will liberate the world. In the meantime we are what the prophet called the prisoners of hope-chained to the wheel but gradually turning it our own way. We shall turn it more surely if we open our minds this week to all the thoughts Christmas brings us in normal times. It is not so much a matter of eating and drinking-though it is no sin to indulge ourselves in those ways, if we decently can-as of being festive in spirit and relaxing the tension of our minds. As it happens, the hearts of many of us are on distant battlefields, and if there is one thing of which we are sure, we may be sure it is that there will be no long faces among our sons and brothers in uniform. It is not forgetting them, but remembering them as they would wish to be remembered — encouraging them and cheering them and proving ourselves worthy of them-to be as nearly ourselves as we can be at home whatever is happening somewhere else.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 79, 27 December 1940, Page 4
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416Christmas At Home New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 79, 27 December 1940, Page 4
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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