Hello everyone, 

This is a last-minute Christmas greeting to all of you who celebrate Christmas and a not-quite-last-minute greeting to those of you may celebrate Hogmanay with the Scots next week. And if you don’t celebrate this week, best wishes for when you do celebrate! 

I’ve been trying to figure out what to say in this first electronic greetings message. I have resisted an electronic card, I have resisted sending you straight to my website since that is a two-step process (which I intend to try out for my New Year’s greeting!), and I have resisted writing anything at all so far because I just couldn’t get the message clear in my head. But today it has become clearer. I want to share a thought about a child and about children. 

Growing up in the Christian tradition as I did, Christmas to me was about the birth of a special child—a special child who inspired others to care for other children. Although I no longer consider myself a Christian, I do still think of children at this time of year. 

Recently, I have had some special opportunities to support children. Five colleagues and I have just been hired on a project to bring the Appreciative Inquiry process into schools in Scotland: twenty schools with a total of ten thousand students! That starts in the new year. 

In October, I took the opportunity to work in Bangkok with the donor relations team of the World Food Programme. This amazingly talented and committed group of people have a very simple seven-word mission: End child hunger in Asia by 2015. 

Last summer, as we prepared for the inspiring weekend of the G8 Alternative Summit and the discouraging week of the actual G8 Summit just over the hills from here, we watched a film by Richard Curtis called “The Girl in the Café” in which one character reveals that she has been in prison and the other character asks her: 

“Why were you in prison?’ 

“For hurting a man who had killed a child.” 

“Your child?” 

“What difference does it make whose child it was?” 

That message has stayed with me. The starving children in Asia are not my children; the ten thousand students in the schools I’ll be working in next year do not include my grandchildren. What difference does that make? 

Four days ago, my grandson was born. I will hold him for the first time on Christmas morning. For me, he is the special child this Christmas. As I hold him, I will think of all the other children round the world: each one a special child. And I will keep working, as we all do in our own ways, to make this world a more safe, more just, more peaceful place for my grandson, for my granddaughters, and for every other child. 

Love and peace to each of you, 

Walt

Hello everyone, 

This is a last-minute Christmas greeting to all of you who celebrate Christmas and a not-quite-last-minute greeting to those of you may celebrate Hogmanay with the Scots next week. And if you don’t celebrate this week, best wishes for when you do celebrate! 

I’ve been trying to figure out what to say in this first electronic greetings message. I have resisted an electronic card, I have resisted sending you straight to my website since that is a two-step process (which I intend to try out for my New Year’s greeting!), and I have resisted writing anything at all so far because I just couldn’t get the message clear in my head. But today it has become clearer. I want to share a thought about a child and about children. 

Growing up in the Christian tradition as I did, Christmas to me was about the birth of a special child—a special child who inspired others to care for other children. Although I no longer consider myself a Christian, I do still think of children at this time of year. 

Recently, I have had some special opportunities to support children. Five colleagues and I have just been hired on a project to bring the Appreciative Inquiry process into schools in Scotland: twenty schools with a total of ten thousand students! That starts in the new year. 

In October, I took the opportunity to work in Bangkok with the donor relations team of the World Food Programme. This amazingly talented and committed group of people have a very simple seven-word mission: End child hunger in Asia by 2015. 

Last summer, as we prepared for the inspiring weekend of the G8 Alternative Summit and the discouraging week of the actual G8 Summit just over the hills from here, we watched a film by Richard Curtis called “The Girl in the Café” in which one character reveals that she has been in prison and the other character asks her: 

“Why were you in prison?’ 

“For hurting a man who had killed a child.” 

“Your child?” 

“What difference does it make whose child it was?” 

That message has stayed with me. The starving children in Asia are not my children; the ten thousand students in the schools I’ll be working in next year do not include my grandchildren. What difference does that make? 

Four days ago, my grandson was born. I will hold him for the first time on Christmas morning. For me, he is the special child this Christmas. As I hold him, I will think of all the other children round the world: each one a special child. And I will keep working, as we all do in our own ways, to make this world a more safe, more just, more peaceful place for my grandson, for my granddaughters, and for every other child. 

Love and peace to each of you, 

Walt