cbs 2008-12-25 CHRISTMAS

You are listening to the radio today aren’t you? This is Dave Ross.

When you’re with family on Christmas, you’re eating or joking, sometimes arguing, but you’re not listening to the radio, so you must be on the way to see the family, or spending the holiday at work, or on duty serving the country, or alone.  Or you don’t celebrate Christmas, or your calendar is missing a page.

The point is that for some people Christmas is the saddest holiday of the year – because for whatever reason they can’t be home.

But I could make an argument that it’s the holidays when you’re away from family that are the most important ones you experience.

Because every once in a while, we all need a reminder – especially people with close families – how irreplaceable they are.  That the alternatives can include … well they can include Christmas spent listening to the radio.    Which isn’t terrible, obviously, I love that you’re listening to the radio I’m just saying that an evening with the people you really enjoy, especially where one of them is a really good cook, and the others know how to enjoy mixed beverages responsibly is so much better.

And when things are going great you can forget that families don’t just happen.  They have to be built choice by choice… who you decide to marry, how you raise your children, the job you choose, the way you spend your time when somebody tugs at your leg, which grudges you decide to hold, and which you let go. 

When you’re alone on a holiday… you think about those things and appreciate them more.

You can remind yourself that a close family doesn’t just happen.  It many deliberate decisions, over many years.  And when you hear someone say it’s never too late to do the right thing… you can remind yourself that it’s never too early either.
Now this.   This is Dave Ross.