Skip to main content

Christmas Day, 2008

The Transcript newsroom is quiet.

Where there are usually at least 10 different people all going about the required motions to publish a newspaper, today it's just myself and the city editor, Linda.

Occasionally, the scanner will crackle and remind you that police, firemen and the guys who drive the ambulance also have to work on Christmas Day.

But at this moment, it's still.

Earlier this afternoon, I covered (along with my wife and my infant son, Zach) Norman's annual Christmas Day Dinner at Norman High School. Being thrown into a huge mix of humanity was good for me; it forced me to get out and connect with people again.

There, I saw the poorest of the poor having dinner with those who only lacked company. The kids lined hundreds deep to see Santa and then hit the toy line.

The murmur of voices provided a soundtrack for the dinner. 

It was only later, while sitting in front of this computer and hearing nothing by the clack of the keyboard, that I realized just how stark the contrast of being at the noisy, hurly-burly dinner, then coming back to an almost tomb-like newsroom could be.

I wonder about many of those I saw at the dinner, today.

For some, their poverty was evident; written on their faces in harsh, jagged lines that were draped with tattered clothes and thread-bare shoes.

Others just seemed distant -- sad faces filled with vacant expressions.

Having experienced all this, I understand more what Dickens was trying to say when he wrote that "mankind was the business" of characters such as Jacob Marley and Ebenezer Scrooge.

There is a need for noise and human contact during the Yuletide season. Just as there is a needs for silence, reflection and peace.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-pastor suing Moore's First Baptist Church

MOORE — A former official with Moore’s First Baptist Church is suing the church for his termination, and for “spreading false rumors about his mental health throughout the community,” court documents show. Jimmie D. Lady, the church’s associate pastor, filed the suit in Cleveland County District Court last week seeking $10,000 in actual damages and $10,000 in punitive damages for “severe emotional distress and mental anguish as a result of statements made about him when his job was terminated.” Lady’s attorney, Andrew Hicks of Houston, claimed church officials terminated Lady for being bi-polar, then spread rumors about Lady in the community. “Although a man of God, Dr. Lady cannot ignore the dramatic, adverse effects these untrue and unfair accusations have had on him and his family,” Hicks said. “First Baptist Moore’s efforts to tarnish Dr. Lady’s reputation have threatened his family’s livelihood. Through this suit, we hope to restore Dr. Lady’s good name.” Church officials denied...
5 comments
Read more

If I were a chef...

If I were a chef, I’d spend early Wednesday mornings at the Farmers Market. I’d get there around 7 a.m., when the produce was wet and fresh and the day was young and the people were still drinking their coffee. If I were a chef, I’d wait patiently while the wrinkled granny lady individually fondled all 631 tomatoes on the table in front of her. I’d quietly tap my foot as she sniffed and touched each of the red, buxom vegetables before she finally selected two, and paid for them. I’d do that, if I were a chef. If I were a chef, I buy peaches — boxes and boxes of peaches. I’d buy them from the old, snaggle-toothed man with the radiant smile whose booth sits to the right of the entrance to the fairgrounds building. I’d buy his peaches because I know the old man understands fruit and earth and trees, better than anyone else there. I’d smile as his wrinkled, gnarly hand gently placed peach after peach in my basket. And I’d give him a sly wink after he handed me a bruised, but succulent pea...
5 comments
Read more

The Hidden Watergate Story: How Larry Nichols and U.S. House Speaker Carl Albert Made the Difficult Choice to Say ‘No’

House Speaker Carl Albert, D-McAlester, center is shown in 1974. To Albert's left is his press secretary, Joe Foote . OKLAHOMA CITY – This is a story about power and politics. A story about the choices men are given and the choices those same men make.   This is also a story about history, a little-known tale regarding one of the biggest political scandals in American. This is a story about Watergate. But it’s not a typical Watergate story: It’s a story that few know and even fewer talk about.    This is a Watergate story about two Oklahomans: The late Carl Albert, then-Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a young Justice Department attorney named Larry Nichols. One a Republican, the other a Democrat who, at the height of a national crisis, when the country was divided and people were furious and frightened, made an incredibly difficult choice.                  The Scandal That Brought ...
Post a Comment
Read more