The Holiday Homeroom Door Decorating contest had been announced first thing that morning, and in my sophomore grade year of high school that was the sort of shit with which I wanted less to do than joining the boys basketball team. I sat back and watched kids who cared more battle out what out theme would be, and who would do what as far as the artistic execution of it went. I probably proposed spraying glue on the thing and blowing a bunch of glitter at it with a hair dryer. Whatever my easy-squeezy proposal might have been, it was overridden by a worthier cause and theme: Santa in Saudi. At that moment in history – December of the year 1990 – we had sent troops into Saudi Arabia, and all our thoughts were there.
FROM A DISTANCE
THE WORLD LOOKS BLUE AND GREEN
AND THE SNOW-CAPPED MOUNTAINS WHITE
FROM A DISTANCE
THE OCEAN MEETS THE STREAM
AND THE EAGLE TAKES TO FLIGHT
FROM A DISTANCE
THERE IS HARMONY
AND IT ECHOES THROUGH THE LAND
AND IT’S THE VOICE OF HOPE
AND IT’S THE VOICE OF PEACE
IT’S THE VOICE OF EVERY MAN
This was in the days when five casualties were five too many, and any death seemed unfathomable to those of us who only knew of a world where a Cold War left us worried but no one died over it. (A far cry from today, when 300,000 American deaths go numbly in one ear and out the other. Also a distant ways from the 3,000 Americans we lost on 9/11.) As high school students, what else could we do? What could anyone expect us to do? Certainly not understand the gravity of it, and so we did the best we knew. We (and by we, I mean people more artistically-talented and capable than me) set about to crafting a life-size Santa figure in desert camouflage and sunglasses (I think I was wisely made responsible only for one his boots). Titled ‘Santa In Saudi’ it also included a banner saying ‘Let’s Keep It A Silent Night’.
When I think back to Mr. Winning’s 10thgrade math class – the homeroom in which we assembled this troop-homage – my heart grows a little tender for our attempt at making a message for the holiday season, and for my classmates who so earnestly and fervently went about making it come to life. I also recall this song made popular by Bette Midler in that unsettling Season of Saudi, when we worried about our troops in the embracing way this country has historically cared for its own. I didn’t know there was a Christmas version of it recorded years later. Back then, it all came together – Christmas, a distant war, and the way almost every tenth-grader wanted to feel less alone. This song choked me up then, when I sat and listened to it behind a closed door, when the snow fell outside and we wondered if it was anything like the swirling heat and sand of Saudi Arabia.
FROM A DISTANCE
THE WORLD SINGS ‘SILENT NIGHT’
LIKE A SOFT EMBRACING PSALM
FROM A DISTANCE (FROM A DISTANCE)
THE WORDS SOUND SWEET AND CLEAR
AND ALL IS BRIGHT AND CALM
FROM A DISTANCE
WE ARE INSTRUMENTS
MARCHING IN A COMMON BAND
PLAYING SONGS OF HOPE
PLAYING SONGS OF PEACE
THEY’RE THE SONGS OF EVERY MAN
At home, in the cover of night and snow, I found a roll of yellow ribbon and tied it around the maple trees in front of our house, telling no one. They appeared, I hoped, like some Christmas miracle, a small sign of support for a fight over which none of us had any control. It was the least – and the most – that I could do back then.
FROM A DISTANCE
YOU, YOU LOOK LIKE MY FRIEND
EVEN THOUGH WE ARE AT WAR
FROM A DISTANCE
I JUST I CANNOT COMPREHEND
WHAT ALL THIS FIGHTING’S FOR
FROM A DISTANCE
THERE IS HARMONY
DO YOU HEAR IT ECHO THROUGH THE LAND
IT’S THE SONG OF JOY
IT’S THE SONG OF PEACE
IT’S THE HEART OF EVERY MAN
IN THE SEASON OF
UNIVERSAL LOVE
