This Season, The Signs of Peace Are Everywhere...

Peace has returned to my town after a long absence.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, the holiday season is heading into full swing.  Radio stations are playing Christmas tunes around the clock, the cable channels are featuring night after night of holiday specials and catalogs are piling up in my mailbox.

The melee of Black Friday has segued into Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.  The stores are packed with shoppers and the parking lots are jammed with cars.  Though it’s supposed to be the season of “good will towards men”, that goodwill doesn’t seem to extend to someone else trying to grab the last parking space, the last pair of Ugg slippers or the last iPad mini.

And yet peace has returned to my town.

Lawns have been scraped clean of autumn’s last leaves and the natural foliage has been replaced with endless strings of lights.  The warm ones remind me of Christmases past, while the new LED lights seem cold and impersonal.  There are light displays that coordinate to music, pulsating to the sounds of Mannheim Steamroller and The Trans Siberian Orchestra. Enormous inflatable Grinches and snowmen and Santas loom over bushes while illuminated skeletons of reindeer graze silently on lawns.  Some folks prefer the understated look of a single wreath on their door and a few white candles in the window, while others try to outdo their neighbors by planting more candy canes along the walkway, hanging more icicles on the roof and blaring Christmas carols from their outside speakers.

And amidst all the noise and electricity and conspicuous consumption, peace has managed to quietly find its way back to my town. 

You see there’s a home not far from my own, which features the same display each holiday season.  I forget about it each year until late November rolls around. Driving through town after dark, I spot that wonderful, seasonal beacon of hope.

It’s a peace sign, mounted on the owner’s garage, completely wreathed in lights.  I’m sure there are some that scoff at this leftover 60’s relic, but that simple symbol bathed in white lights never fails to bring me a moment of calm during the hectic holiday season.

The peace sign was original created in 1958 as a symbol for the British Nuclear Disarmament movement.  The symbol is a combination of the semaphore signals “N” and “D” for nuclear disarmament.  Shortly afterwards, it was adopted by anti-war protestors in the United States.  Recently, I’ve seen bumper stickers that identify the peace sign as “the footprint of the American chicken”, suggesting that someone who wishes for peace is automatically a coward.  Perhaps that person just wants peace.

Isn’t peace what we want, not just during the holidays but also all year round?  Imagine opening a newspaper or surfing the Internet and seeing no war in the Middle East.  No unrest in Africa.  No shootings in schools or movie theaters.  No trampling innocent shoppers to get the last digital camera on Black Friday.  There would be no bullying, no road rage and no family feuds.  Just…. peace.

I guess that’s a pretty tall order, so for now I’ll strive for a peaceful holiday season.  When the crowds and the shopping and the school projects and family squabbles get to be too much, I’ll get in my car and drive by that house and let that glowing white symbol serve as a reminder of why the word “peace” is such a prominent part of the season: Prince of Peace.  Peace on earth and goodwill towards men.  Sleep in heavenly peace.

May the peace of the season be with you all.