Someone asked the other day what I would like for Christmas and my reply, somewhat tongue in cheek, was “world peace?” Their response was immediate and stinging, “How tacky” they said. Suitably rebuffed I offered some more mundane Christmas wishes such as people paying their bills on time, or the health of family and friends etc. But these are hopes that are constant throughout the year. What we really hope for at Christmas and New Year is a profound change in our lives or the lives of those close to us, and world peace is not really that tacky is it? – impossible perhaps, but not tacky. Another year goes by and the value of our thoughts and wishes is even more dictated by what is fashionable, what is cool, and most importantly, what is not naive or tacky. Unfortunately, aspiring to something so apparently hopeless has been branded as passé and boring, and yes – downright dull. It’s about as bad as dressing shoddily enough to be nabbed by Trini and Suzanna and paraded in front of millions of television viewers as a second class citizen who hasn’t conformed to the western corporate image. Well I’m going to break with the new tradition and be tacky and hope for a world my children will want to live in. So, dear Father Christmas, top of my list is world peace and if Rudolph’s Union doesn’t allow him to deliver that, I’ll go for a DVD player. At least then I won’t have to watch the lack of world peace on television, I can choose a good film instead – and live in hope it has a happy ending.
