So many questions for a place we’ve never been.
When we again gather, will it be as before?
Hugs
Kisses
Handshakes
How will it feel to go out to a movie?
Dinner
Drinks
Holidays
Will I remember how to be social closer than
six feet?
Will I instinctively retreat when a mask-less stranger
approaches?
Will the New Year bring new Boomers?
Parades
Vacations
Absent family
Will this be over at the stroke of midnight or will the
return be gradual?
So many questions for a place we’ve never been.
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The words to the Christmas song I'll be Home for Christmas has new meaning this holiday. "Have yourself a merry, little Christmas. Let your heart be light. Next year all our troubles will be out of sight.....next year all our troubles will be miles away. Once again as in olden days, happy golden days of yore. Faithful friends who were dear to us, will be near to us once more. Someday soon we all will be together, if the fates allow. Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow. I'll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams."
The song was written for the musical Meet Me in St. Louis and was first sung by Judy Garland. According to Internet Movie Database, Hugh Martin originally wrote the line, "Have yourself a merry, little Christmas. It may be your last." Garland, however, refused to sing such a depressing line to her little sister Tootie, played by Margaret O'Brien. When Hugh Martin was interviewed by Terry Gross on National Public Radio's Fresh Air in 1989, he said, "The original version was so lugubrious that Judy Garland refused to sing it. She said, 'If I sing that, little Margaret will cry and they'll think I'm a monster.' So I was young then and kind of arrogant, and I said, 'Well, I'm sorry you don't like it, Judy, but that's the way it is, and I don't really want to write a new lyric." But Tom Drake, who played the boy next door, took me aside and said, 'Hugh, you've got to finish it. It's really a great song potentially, and I think you'll be sorry if you don't do it.' So I went home and I wrote the version that's in the movie."
Mr. Martin could not have possibly known his lyrics would have new meaning in this time of Covid-19. His words make my heart feel light, thinking of what next year will bring. His words give me hope, and hope is the greatest Christmas present I could ask for. Time is too precious to wish it away so while this pandemic has taught me to appreciate friends and family and long walks even more than before, I look forward to "next year all our troubles will be miles away."
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