이번주는 아침근무라 6시부터 근무를 한다.
일하고 있는데 아침 7시쯤 오후근무(오후 2시~오후10시)인 미군애 하나가 운동복 차림으로 꿀렁꿀렁 걸어 들어오는 것이었다. 오후근무까지는 아직 한참 남은데다가 더욱이 술이나 파티 같은걸 무척 좋아하는 녀석이라 다들 놀랐다.

우리 shift leader가,
” Hey, what’re you doing here this early? You’re being a good boy now? ”

그랬더니,
” Well… yeah. Chirstmas is Coming! ”

이놈 센스있는 대답 한 마디에 다들 웃으면서 잠이 덜 깬 facility의 분위기가 한층 밝아졌다.    

크리스마스를 생각하면 기분이 좋아진다.

어릴적 부모님과 함께 유명 백화점에 가면 금색 반짝거리는 크리스마스 장식들을 보면서 좋아했던 기억, 몇년 전 연말에 종로에서 본 영화 러브 액추얼리에서 늙은 가수가 Christmas is all around 를 부르며 모든 이의 사랑이 이루어지는 장면… 이런 것들이 떠오르기 때문일 것이다.

그런 의미에서 얼마전에 본 크리스마스에 관련된 글 하나 여기에 옮겨본다.

하지만 마지막 구절이 무척 쓰리다는거. ㅋ

다시 현실로 돌아와보면 이번 크리스마스를 어떻게 보내야 할지 착잡할 따름이다.

흐흐흐.

Keeping Christmas
– Henry Van Dyke

There is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and that is, keeping Christmas.

·Are you willing…

to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you;

to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world;

to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground;

to see that men and women are just as real as you are, and try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy;

to own up to the fact that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life;

to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness.

Are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

·Are you willing…

to stoop down and consider the needs and desires of little children;

to remember the weakness and loneliness of people growing old;

to stop asking how much your friends love you, and ask yourself whether you love them enough;

to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear in their hearts;

to try to understand what those who live in the same home with you really want, without waiting for them to tell you;

to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you;

to make a grave for your ugly thoughts, and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open—

Are you willing to do these things, even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

·Are you willing…

to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world—

stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death—

and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love?

Then you can keep Christmas.And if you can keep it for a day, why not always?

But you can never keep it alone.

Six Days of the Week,
NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1924 and 1952.