Christmastime is here, that song is actually playing on the radio as I type. How fitting to start off with reminding you that it is, indeed, Christmastime.

When I used to teach religion in Catholic schools I used to speak of Christmas as a time for transformation. After all, Christ was born and transformed the world. Now I know a lot of bad things have been done in His name by religious leaders who should have been spreading His word but instead did horrible things while wearing the collar.

I am trying to ignore that for the time being and to get back to transformation.

Back in my teaching days, I would speak of the various characters in the arts that exemplified  the transformative nature of the season,

There was Scrooge of course.

But there was also Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree and even Frosty The Snowman.

If you are to believe the animated Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, even Sant and Donner were transformed, though you would have thought that Santa needed no change of heart.

In all of the above illustrations, Christmas brought a change of heart and mind to the characters. In some cases, life-changing transformations were realized.

This year I am going to try on my transformation. Perhaps I can learn a thing or two from Scrooge and Santa?

One thing that retired life provides is ample time to be crabby. You can start your day off watching whichever side of the aisle to which you subscribe. If you are like me, MSNBC will be the eyeopener for the morning along with a hot cup of coffee. I recently restricted my viewing to no more than a half hour. I then listen to the mass from Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and try to transform my Church by not abandoning it in its time of disgrace. It’s sort of like being a fan of the New York Jets.

If you are one of them, you probably watch Fox and you really do need to transform.

Well, there I go. I have to stop doing that and perhaps that is the first journey on my road to transformation? I have to leave all the hate behind me.

It’s not easy to do but it is certainly necessary and, without abandoning hate, you miss the whole point of Christmas and transformation is impossible.

So, I am going to leave Trump alone and I hope those of you who support him can leave Nancy Pelosi alone. It’s a start and only step one of the thousand-mile journey.

The goal is not just to abandon hate for Christmastime but to make it a way of life.

I am tired of being angry.

I am tired of not writing because I am tired of writing anti-Trump pieces.

We just witnessed the tributes to George H.W. Bush and you would think he was the most popular president we ever had.

I never voted for him either as Vice President or President.

I didn’t agree with many of his policies but I didn’t hate him.

He was human and acted as humans do. He wasn’t perfect but we could all agree to respect his memory when he died.

It would be nice if we could return to an era where people who disagreed on policy issues could, nonetheless, respect one another.

Talk about transformation!