Tag: Christmas

The Holidays and the Ambiguity of Hope

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Dec. 26, Anthony Elia, director and J.S. Bridwell Foundation Endowed Librarian and associate dean for Special Collections and Academic Publishing at SMU, for a commentary about the spirit of adventure during the holidays. Published in Park Cities People under the heading The Holidays and The Ambiguity of Hope: https://tinyurl.com/2xfa7kc7 ​

 

I love airplanes and happen to live near DFW international Airport. So close, in fact, I constantly hear the industrial engines of passenger jets cruising over my home as the planes prepare to land or are accelerating into the atmosphere.

I travel frequently and enjoy my short transitions in the airport terminals, albeit, even with the crowds, especially around the holidays when airports are adorned with bows, wreaths, and candy cane decorations. I don’t mind the low expectations about lines and processed travel foods or the uncertainty of ever-changing gates and schedules. But I also just like to watch the airplanes parked at their gates, being pushed off their aprons, taxiing along the flight lines, and taking off or landing.

There is a silent joy about the ‘in between’ nature of an airplane — where groups of strangers gather for a few or dozen hours, are shuttled off to one place or another, a few hundred miles or 10,000, and defy the laws of gravity. We should only be in wagons, really. But that’s another story.

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Give trust and grace to others. It’s the holidays

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Dec. 24, Anthony Elia, director of Bridwell Library and associate dean for Special Collections and Academic Publishing at SMU Dallas, for a commentary about how we should be more forgiving and understanding during the holidays. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading: Give trust and grace to others. It’s the holidays: https://tinyurl.com/mr3k33hk

​Last Christmas, I attended a Sunday service at one of our local big congregation churches. During the sermon, the lively preacher spoke in that folksy cadence and animating spirit to deliver the weekly message. In the pew in front of me sat a distinguished-looking man in a storm-gray suit, with a shock of white hair. After listening to the preacher for a bit, the man bent toward his wife, rolled his eyes, and mouthed the word “faker!”

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A Christmas story — with no commercial interruptions

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Dec. 24, Michael Davis, economics professor at the Cox School of Business, SMU Dallas, for a nostalgic read at the intersection of a Letter-To-Santa and a child’s lack of information about brand names because — well, commercial influencers are mostly missing from contemporary kid media culture. Published in USA Today with the heading A Christmas story — with no commercial interruptions: http://bit.ly/34H91X8 

I’m not going to tell you this is the best holiday season ever. COVID-19 has killed more than 1.7 million people around the world, nearly 11 million Americans can’t find work, the U.S. national debt will soon exceed $30 trillion and our politicians claim that their opponents hate puppies. I’m an economist. I know these things.

But here’s something I’m very thankful for: Our 5-year-old had a hard time writing her letter to Santa Claus. I know it seems weird, but it turns out her struggle is a happy reminder of how modern life can be better. Here’s why.

Despite what her grandmother and aunts think, she’s not that different than other kids. She’s not some emerging saint, selflessly spreading holiday cheer to all. She likes stuff. More toys and candy are better. She is what in economics we call a “rational consumer.”

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