Written by Gary Boldizar
Hello Readers, My name is Gary Boldizar, and I work at Fiesta Ford, not too far from you. Our advertising in this magazine includes the occasional opportunity to talk about the car business, inform you of events occurring at the dealership, or even share some random thoughts. Random thoughts it shall be today.
As I plan on referencing Christmas, it may seem you’re receiving this late. If you feel this way, I can assure you the fault is all mine, and not the Sun City Insider staff.
Like many of you reading this, I feel we are living in extraordinary, even uncharted, times. I cannot recalI ever in my lifetime encountering the level of incivility, coarseness and disrespect I am peppered with daily.
One cannot watch a newscast or read a few pages of the newspaper without stumbling upon a story that shocks us, angers us, or has us shaking our heads. Criminals and troublemakers include teenagers, our elected officials on both sides of the aisle, and everyone in between. I feel a sense of helplessness, knowing things are not right in our world, and struggle to come up with a message which might reach someone, anyone.
The other day, while seeking refuge from reality by seeking entertainment on the Internet, I came across a short movie re-enacting the Christmas Truce of 1914. I vaguely remembered this story from a high school history class, but really just the name and the date. Curious if there may be lesson or ray of hope, I settled back and watched the 14 minute movie. I won’t say it was life-changing, but I felt a little better, more hopeful, after watching, even though I’d shed a tear or two.
To sum it up in a few sentences, on Christmas Eve 1914, common, ordinary soldiers on both sides of the battlefield laid down their arms and ventured out of the hellish trenches they’d called home for months. They sang Christmas carols in English, German and French. They traded crumpets and cigarettes and sausage and wine. They played soccer and held religious services, often as their commanding officers looked on, dumbstruck and powerless. Sanity broke out for a few hours, not because someone commanded it to, but because thousands of ordinary people said, “Enough.” Sadly, the war resumed on December 26th.
If those brave men were able to orchestrate the Christmas Truce of 1914, why can’t we have a Winter Truce of 2022/2023? Or a Spring Truce, or an Easter Truce, or a Saint Patrick’s Day Truce? Were it within my power to do so, I’d share the story from 1914 with the entire country. I’d show movies to school children, in workplace lunch rooms and churches across the country. For Washington, D.C., I’d make everyone elected or appointed to anything, from the Oval Office to the newest intern in Congress, pick up their paycheck at a Christmas Truce event.
They could watch a movie or a live re-enactment, but they would learn about it. We need everyone from the aforementioned teenagers to the aforementioned politicians, and everyone in between, to learn it can be a good thing to “lower your weapon” and be civil. Nice. Even kind.
I know that you folks reading this are the last ones who need to watch a Christmas Truce movie. I wanted to share my idea, and hope that some of you might share it as well. It’s difficult to share it with those “at the top”; still trying to figure that out. But I do try, every day, at least once, to disarm myself to the surprise of another.
Then I ask if they’re familiar with the Christmas Truce of 1914, and when we part, I make sure they are happier
Home & Office Deilivery than they were when we first met… just like the first
soldiers who bravely met their adversaries…
