Families in transit
Just when I am supposed to write the annual holiday letter, this Venezuelan family comes on CNN after traversing the Rio Grande for El Paso. A man and a pregnant woman, a child in tow, crossed the cobblestone walkway through the shallows in search of some sort of peace. She gave birth to a girl shortly after crossing.
Of course, the Christmas story is that of a family in transit and fear, because Mary and Joseph know what’s at stake. So do the Venezuelans. They get to New York and sleep in a shelter, and he goes to work.
There was no room at the inn for Mary and Joseph but someone with a manger showed them a little heart, just like the New Yorkers sheltering refugees from terror and famine. Or Storm Lake.
Mr. Goodfellow wandered into my mind, and the Adopt A Family program. Mr. Goodfellow provides winter clothing for children who need it through generous donations from Times Pilot readers. Upper Des Moines Opportunity and the Times Pilot connect readers to the needy during the holidays through the Adopt A Family program.
The beneficiaries are mainly the children of immigrants, very much like the Venezuelan family. The donors know it. They are generous as ever. Storm Lakers have supported Mr. Goodfellow for nearly a century. They have always wanted to do good, to help the less fortunate.
The school staff knows who needs what. They get it for them. Donations through Adopt A Family help Cubans get settled in the land of the free, where it is awfully cold.
That Venezuelan father is glad to have a job and a chance at refuge. We’re glad that people like him end up in Storm Lake with the sole hope of building a future for their children. The theme is inescapable this time of year. It is lost on few of us.
Decency remains the standard here, to help people catch a break no matter the politics of the hour. You wish that there were no need for Upper Des Moines in such a garden spot as Storm Lake, but there is, and it finds support.
Down deep there’s a spirit that opens our place to the stranger, who is familiar by now. It’s a place to warm yourself against the freezing rain and that howling wind around.
You wonder if democracy can hold. It does.
You wonder if freedom still rings. Ask the Cuban.
You think you might not make it through last December, and then the saints answer. I think I believe that. You have to hit me over the head for a long time.
The family is well as can be. John remains the smartest man in any room; thank God he does not fish or golf. Kieran is slated to get married this summer, and Holly is a delight. Clare is editing for the Cedar Rapids Gazette remotely from Chicago through the wonders of modern technology, ripping up the town with roommate and cousin Hope Cullen. Joe fiddles in Las Vegas and lives the life of a rover. Tom churns out copy like a machine. Dolores works works like a good Bormann should and, as always, keeps things on keel. Peach wags her tail.
Storm Lake is growing and fairly healthy. If you want a job there is one. It’s about as interesting a place as you’ll find two hours from anyplace. It’s easy. They plow the snow well. Seldom does the power go out. The wifi signal is decent. Rent is pretty cheap, and so is the pork. Buena Vista University is hanging in there against all odds. Those pelicans around Icehouse Island were something else.
If you can put the politics out of your head, that Herod is after your first-born, you can be struck by the wonder of it. That the Christmas story plays out in the here and now with a winter snowsuit for a boy who didn’t have one. With a helping hand and good work the family will be able to buy their own next year. That’s the hope. It’s something to hang onto. It can all work out here, where a family in transit can find home again.
Art Cullen is editor of the Storm Lake Times Pilot in Northwest Iowa, where this column appeared. For more columns and editorials, please consider a subscription to the Times Pilot. Or, if you wish, you can make a tax-deductible gift to the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation to support independent community journalism in rural Iowa. Thanks.
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Thank you for connecting the symbolism of the family in transit to today. Helping our neighbors and extending kindness is at the center of what Jesus taught.
A great story about what is important this time of year.
I’m a new subscriber, found you through Julie Gammack’s Potluck. You can find compelling journalism everywhere in this country. Thanks,
Bob Noun
St. Petersburg, FL