Share your happiness
It is Christmas again! Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus and proclaims the message of goodwill to love, forgive and share our time, energy and resources with the poor and the needy. People, irrespective of colour, creed and nationality, decorate their premises with multi-coloured lights, Christmas trees and stars. It is a time when people greet and exchange gifts among their dear ones and friends.
Today, celebrations turn out to be an extravaganza and merely a personal enjoyment without any consideration for the millions of people who are poor and starving. Living in an egalitarian society we need to ensure that everyone has equal right to what God has created for the entire human race. Social media often exposes the incidents of unemployment, poverty, starvation, exploitation and less fortunate children. Can we be blind to these less fortunate and suffering fellow humans?
It was heart-rending to view a video clip which showed a child, during Christmas shopping with his rich parents, moving to help a less fortunate starving child; but his parents yelled at him: “Come fast, we have no time, we have a lot more to shop”. And the child was dragged away! What message will that little toddler learn from his parents? How and from whom do we expect that child to learn the values of compassion, care, concern and sharing?
Dr P. D. Johny in the cover story gives us ten tips to find joy in our life. He tells us to be original, be focused and choose happiness by counting our blessings and sharing that joy.
Real joy comes when it is shared — ‘joy shared is joy doubled’. We spend loads of money and time on expensive dress, colourful decorations and rich food for our celebrations. Are willing to share our resources with the less fortunate even if it meant a small sacrifice on our part? If we do so, certainly we will have the joy of our celebrations doubled.
Will this Christmas celebration bring us a momentary gratification or will we do something that will bring happiness to some less fortunate persons? If yes, then we will have a truly “Merry Christmas”. When we dare to share what we have, we declare that though we are human we can be divine as well.
Let all of us find joy in sharing as we welcome the New Year and share our happiness with others. The editor and the staff at THE TEENAGER TODAY wish all our patrons A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR 2016.
John Gilbert, SSP is the former Chief Editor of The Teenager Today, India's only TeenZine.