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We’re extremely pleased to welcome Joseph C.
Phillips to Net Listings as our newest featured
columnist. Joseph is an actor and writer, perhaps
best known as one of the stars of The Cosby Show.
He was also a three-time NAACP award nominee for
his role as attorney Justus Ward on the daytime
drama General Hospital and was the mayor on The
District. Mr. Phillips has had essays published
in Essence magazine, Newsweek, USA today and the
College Digest among others.
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 The
Way I See It
By Joseph C. Phillips
BATTLING
THE CHRISTMAS BLUES
The Christmas season is my favorite time of the year.
I love the pageantry. I love the music and the festivity,
the parades and the smell of pine. I love the food,
and of course Eggnog, which in my younger and more
lactose tolerant years, I used to drink by the glass
full. I even love the weather. Growing up in Denver
I loved the snow and cold. I find it terribly romantic.
There are few things that can compare with sitting
by a fire listening to the snow blowing against the
windowpane. But what I love most about the season
is the laughter. In spite of the holiday hustle and
bustle, people smile at their neighbors. Whether they
are Christian or Jew, they stop and help one another,
they hold doors open and wish each other peace and
blessings. Any time of the year that encourages people
to embrace each other can't be all bad.
I have to confess, though, that the season also
sometimes fills me with sadness. I begin thinking
about family members who have passed on and are
no longer here to share the season with me. My sister
Carole had beautiful dimples. I loved to make her
laugh just so I could see them. She loved Christmas
and spoiled our older sisters children something
rotten. I think of my father who loved Christmas
choral music. During Christmas Eve mass I could
always pick out his beautiful Tenor voice rising
above all the rest as the church choir sang Handle's
Messiah. And I find myself reflecting on my Aunt
Peggy who loved me through many a lonely holiday.
As a child, all I really knew about my Aunt Peggy
was that she had skinny bowed legs, loved to drink
martinis and was my mother's younger sister. As
I grew older, I began to appreciate that she loved
a great deal more than fancy drinks. She loved good
food, she loved to laugh and socialize. But, most
importantly, after my mother's death she loved her
sister's kids as if they were her own.
As a starving actor I often didn't have the money
to get home to Denver for the holidays, so I would
spend Christmas with my Aunt in Massachusetts.
Most years I would arrive at the last minute, yet
every Christmas morning I had gifts under the tree.
I would leave a week later belly stuffed and bags
loaded with presents. But you know, it's not the
gifts under the tree that I miss. I miss sitting
in her kitchen laughing late at night, sharing conversation
while driving the snow-covered streets shopping
for my cousins. What I pine for is stepping off
the plane in Boston and being greeted by her smile,
of getting a big hug and most of all, knowing that
I was home.
I suppose it would be easy for me to sit around
feeling sad and lonely, grieving for those that
were so dear to me. But what a waste of a great
holiday! Christmas is a celebration of the birth
of salvation -- new life. Rather than wallow in
the holiday blues, I choose instead to become infused
with the spirit of a new beginning. I choose to
rejoice in their memory and become enlivened by
the joy it brings me. So this Christmas, like my
father, I am going to sing a little louder during
Sunday Church service. Like my sister Carole would
have done, I am going to kiss my sons up one side
and down the other. And like my Aunt Peggy I am
going to make certain that everyone who comes through
my front door knows that they are at home.
Send
me your ways of seeing it at Josephcp@netlistings.com
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