Magic for Christmas

Dear Santa,

I think the last time I wrote you; I was maybe seven. You know, that’s the weird age when the magic disappears out of someone’s life. We wise up and realize some hard truths. But then, if you don’t exist, why do I get so excited about Christmas? Why do I like bringing up the bins, and putting the stuff in them up? Why do I eye the jewelry and sells and try to figure out what to buy my Baby without her realizing it. Why do I hope to catch your smile or the twinkle in your eyes. Why do I look at all the corny shows on Hallmark with anticipation and go hunting my favs down. Why do I go to church, listen to the message, and grab at the reason it all happened.

Maybe that explains why one of my favorite TV episodes is the one from Reba, Cookies for Santa. Maybe because it’s about all about those of us that lost the magic but would love to get it back!

So, I’m writing you with my christmas list.

No, I don’t want a Pony.

I want books (they’re easier to get down the chimney).

So, here’s my short list for this year:

• Brothers Born of Adversity – Larry Dean Reese – This historical narrative weaves the true story of how two navy corpsmen’s bond of friendship helped them survive being prisoners of the Japanese Empire during WWII. In addition to being imprisoned in the Philippines and Japan, they lived through unimaginable horror on the infamous “hell ships,” of which only one of six men survived to see the war’s end.
• When I Die I’m Going to Heaven ‘Cause I’ve Spent my Time in Hell: A memoir of my year as an Army Nurse in Vietnam – Barbara Kautz – When she was 18, Barbara Hesselman joined the Army to finance her nursing education. A little more than four years later, and with less than six months of nursing experience, she was assigned to the 24th Evacuation Hospital in South Vietnam. On the neurosurgical intensive care unit where she worked, she and her fellow soldiers fought for the lives of the wounded–and sometimes their sanity–with hard work and silly antics that included a mascot named Mighty Ralph. 
• The Valley Walker by T.W. Dittmer – Special Investigator Teri Altro is a hard-driving member of the Drug Interdiction Task Force. She is cold and aloof, with no room in her life for personal entanglements. No one is allowed to call her by her first name. No one is allowed to get close to her. Any form of physical contact is unacceptable to her, except when her body demands it. People who work with Altro respect her, but have learned to stay out of her way. She carries a gun in her shoulder bag. When Altro first notices the man staring at her, he doesn’t seem like anything special… just some guy in the drugstore. But when three men walk in the door to assassinate her, he kills them all with fluid ease, and so quickly that she doesn’t even have time to pull her own gun. The confrontation is so eerily violent that it leaves Altro wondering just who… or what… the man is. Sounds a little like a work I used to live in with a spin of course.
• The Boys in the Light: An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival, Faith, and Brotherhood by Nina Wilner: At sixteen, Eddie Willner was among the millions of European Jews rounded up by Hitler’s Nazis. He was forced into slave labor alongside his father and his best friend, Mike, and spent the next three years of his life surviving the death camps, including Auschwitz. Meanwhile, in the United States, boys only a few years older than Eddie were joining the army and heading toward their own precarious futures. Once farmers, factory workers, and coal miners, they were suddenly untested soldiers, thrust into the brutal conflicts of WWII. A company of 3rd Armored Division tankers, led by 23-year-old Elmer Hovland, quickly became battle-hardened and weary, constantly questioning whether the war was worth it. They got their answer when two emaciated boys stepped out of the woods with their tattooed arms raised.
• The Amateur Astronomer by Sir Patrick Moore – Simply because I’ve read it before, I loved it, and I want my own copy.
• Charity’s Fire by Craig Matthews – For the two couples on the boat it felt like a vacation. It looked like a vacation. Heck, it even smelled like a vacation- but it was an elaborate trap. I’ve been told I’d like Craig’s work. Here’s my chance.
• I Robot by Issac Asimov – Because my copy fell apart a million years ago and it’s time to reread it.

And oh. I took down that old TV antenna and there’s no danger of tearing your pants on it this year.

Rich