Del's Christmas Story

From my Marine Buddy, Del: Today while running errands I stopped by an Aldi store to get a bunch of flowers for my wife, since she's stuck in the spare bedroom on the special bed while recovering, adding a bit of pleasant color for her there is just one of those things that seems like a good idea. Of course there was a long line to get to the cashier. The person ahead of me turned and saw the flowers, said hi, and asked how I was doing. A nice conversation ensued, talking about Christmas, its real meaning, the\ blessings of getting up every day in a free country. And I explained why I was buying flowers for my wife who is healing from serious surgery, at which point the nice person immediately recited a prayer for healing. As we got closer to the cashier my Marine emblem was noticed, and I was asked if I had served, and was immediately thanked very sincerely for my service. As the checkout total was recited for all that was on the belt in front of my flowers, my nice person instructed the cashier to add the flowers into that total, and would not take no for an answer from me. It was very touching, made me feel humble, brought a tear to my eye. And details, details... did I mention this person was a young Black woman? Who did not seem to see me as an old White man, but only as another person celebrating what is good about Christmas and our nation. That's my America, the one I believe in and love. I am so sick of all the people screaming about how we are immersed in racism almost every moment, how we have so much polarization, how we all only pretend to get along, at best, etc, etc. Yes, we have negatives in our society, who doesn't? But we have an abundance of just good, decent, caring people who do their best to rise above the negatives, and live up to the ideals on which we were founded. I say Thank God for them, I rejoice in knowing they are there, and I find renewed hope for us all. And I wanted to pass that on, as part of the message of Christmas. Peace....Del