The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1971, Qupperneq 12

ID
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
WINTER 1971
EDITORIAL
Christmas Meditations at
Semiahmoo Bay
The mist-enshrouded homes on the hillsides overlooking the bay emit an
aura of tranquility, their immaculately groomed gardens reminiscent of some-
thing out of an English country calendar. On Marine Drive a teen-ager in a
souped-up car races by, but generally the atmosphere in White Rock, British
Columbia, is peaceful and subdued. To 'the south across Semiahmoo Bay the
dim outlines of the San Juan Islands are faintly discernible, and to the south-
east a fairyland of Christmas lights in Blaine, Washington, gleam brightly in
the gathering dusk. In the distance, wafted across the hillside, the blessed chimes
of church bells blends with the rhythmic beat of the waves against the shore.
In one of his poems Tennyson said:
5 “The time draws near the birth of Christ.
The moon is hid, the night is still.
The Christmas bells from hill to hill
Answer each other in the mist.”
The world unfortunately has too many mists that tend to obscure the es-
sential goodness and kindness of the human heart and the basic soundness of
human nature.
A home-spun philosopher may be justified in calling the newspapers “daily
saddeners”. To maintain his mental balance he may deem it necessary to select
specific types of articles to read, and to omit others, because they contain so
many reports of crime and cruelty, greed and graft, selfishness and sordidness,
suffering and sorrow. Otherwise he may be tempted to agree with the gentle,
sensitive Roman poet, Virgil, about whom Tennyson said, “Thou majestic in
thy sadness at the doubtful doom of humankind.”
Once every year through the dark, silent mists of these negative, destructive
forces ring the joyous bells of Christmastide, and the bright, penetrating light
of good-will disperses the mists. Humanity seems transformed. “Gone are the
sorrows, gone doubts and fears”. Smiles replace frowns. Friendliness takes the
place of enmity. The miracle of Christmas began with a message which the