In the weeks after the holidays, times seem extra tough. There are bills to pay, it is freezing outside and many of us are fighting colds. Somehow, everyone seems as cranky as they were cheerful in holiday expectation.
Even though we know the spring will come, we are slogging through winter now. But if we each take our turn bearing the brunt of the wind and beating a path through the snow, if we help each other, we can make it to the top of that January hill.
When we look around, we see some amazing things. Department store chains deface discarded clothing so no one can use it, until a graduate student points out the clothes could be given to an outreach center around the corner. We see perfectly good books left in the dumpster at a local library, until someone agrees to organize a book sale or arrange for shipping to a country where there is a hunger for such books.
We see homeless dayworkers kicked out of their woodland campsites yet not given housing by our neighboring Suffolk County, but private citizens and churches stepping forward. Some of those workers said they wished they had money to travel home. Perhaps someone can organize a way to donate frequent-flier miles?
This coming weekend we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and it is more than a day of recognition for an African-American leader of world class. It is a day that reminds us of the human dignity and worth in us all, whatever our race, color or creed, our age or our sex.
January is the perfect time for it.