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Our upcoming January issue is themed renew year. The theme makes me wonder what efforts will be made by those in power to make it a renew year for the planet also.

Over the past few months, with mild weather during October, November and December when people say “can you believe this weather?” I’ve said “good thing there’s no global warming.”

During this past week we’ve had drastic snow storms and rain in the Midwest and constantly shifting temperatures here in the East and all I can think is…good thing there’s no global warming.

Funny too, the other day I was in a conversation and the person said to me “this weathers unbelievable, good thing there’s no global warming,” So I can I’m not alone in wondering if there’s no global warming what’s up!

That said I hope those who can make an immediate difference take our January theme to heart and make it their mantra for the planet — it’s time for a renew year.

Ok. I have a confession to make. This time of year makes me a little teary. You may not like to admit it, but I but there are a number of you holiday softies out there too.

Maybe it’s the outpouring of good will. Maybe it’s the fact that in a season of family I’m reminded that my own parents who died when I was in my twenties never saw their granddaughter who just turned one. Maybe it’s because another year is drawing to a close, which is both exciting and bittersweet.

Even though I can’t say why for sure, the point is that come December little things make me more than a little emotional. Sometimes that emotion is sadness—like when I think about how my dad never got to taste how I finally perfected the traditional holiday rum cake made in his island of Trinidad. Or when I consider that my daughter Sophia is a miniature of my mother—especially her sparkling smile.

Often it can be silly things too. A particular rendition of a Christmas song I’ve heard a million times (well, maybe not a million, but about 1,000 times this season alone). Or a favorite childhood holiday special (The Year Without a Santa Claus gets me every time).

Another sure tear jerker seems to be watching others’ act of kindness. Every year, for example, my brother Ramesh goes to the main post office in Manhattan and gets letters from needy kids asking “Santa” for toys. My brother frets for days racing around the city trying to find them exactly what they ask for. He stands in lines that under normal circumstances would send him into a snit. He worries that the money he is spending is not enough. He wonders if he can buy for 3 kids why not maybe 5 or 6.

This side of him would come as a surprise to many people who know him in his professional and private life. When I think about my brother who only wishes he could do more, I feel like weeping with pride.

The kindness of strangers can be even more moving. Today, for example, I was standing online at a bookstore waiting for gift wrapping by a young volunteer from National Institute for People With Disabilities His learning disabled partner’s job was to recruit folks to take advantage of free gift wrapping in return for a donation.

In front of me in line was an older man I pegged as a gruff type. Heavyset and white-haired he looked like a retired drill sergeant and when he sat down at that table he abruptly asked the young man what the organization was about. He told him and pointed out the lady recruiting customers.

“She was even in Special Olympics,” he said.
To this the man nodded and sat back in his chair.
Soon the lady returned with a frothy drink from the bookstore coffee bar.
“I got a moccachino,” she announced as she sat down.
The man studied her and answered, “Did you now?”
“Yes,” she said smiling broadly.
Then he leaned over and said, “I heard you were in the Special Olympics?”
“Yes!” she said.
“Well that’s great!,” he said brightly. “What did you do?”

Then the two launched into an animated conversation about ball throwing and running and how many kids the man had and how many grandkids and oh, just about everything.

Watching this I felt a little lump in my throat. This man was not who I narrow-mindedly thought he was. This was a kind man. This was a man who listened.

So, here’s my thought: Are any of us really what others peg us for? Probably not. And it shouldn’t take the holidays for us to realize it.

By now you’ve hopefully perused the pages of canvas—both in print and online—and perhaps you’ve read our winter solstice coverage. What you may have come away with is the fact that most winter holidays have their basis in the ancient tradition of the solstice.

Take Christmas, for example. Once upon a time Christmas wasn’t the biggest of Christian holidays. Some scholars say that, if anything, the day of Christ’s birth would be sometime in spring—the only point in the calendar when the Star of Bethlehem is visible in the Nazarene’s part of the world.

So how did Christmas come to be December 25th?

Here’s my thought: Converting the pagan world to Christmas was really all about the feast.
It was Pope Julius I who, in the 4th century AD, got the brainstorm that the best way to convert Romans still practicing their ancient pagan religion would be to meld their major holiday with a Christian one. That holiday was held on December 25th during the month-long Saturnalia feasting and honored the child-god Mithra, who represented the all-powerful sun.

Soon enough the new holiday spread to Egypt where the Coptic priests readily adopted it. Slowly, it made its way to Europe where it was celebrated alongside traditional winter harvest festivals such as the Yule, ultimately usurping them.

This bait and switch would mark just the beginning of food influencing Christianity and vice versa. In fact, were it not for the strong and often-violent evangelical theme of the new religion, many of the foods we enjoy today would not be with us. It was the crusades, for example, that brought European Christians into the Middle and Far East where they encountered the bounty of foods, spices, and drink that had already been traded for centuries along that great trading route—the Silk Road–as well as other smaller spice tributaries stretching from Asia to the Near East and eventually to Europe.

For these religious expeditions, modern day organizations like Starbucks should get on their knees in thanks because those crusaders brought the west, among other things, coffee and tea.
Fast forward some four hundred years and it was Christianity that brought the first intrepid settlers to the New World where they encountered things like potatoes, tomatoes, corn, and chocolate, all of which was dutifully shipped back to the European continent for great chefs to turn into delicacies.

So, I guess religion is not just about what you put in your soul but what you put in your mouth as well.

With that food for thought I’m making a holiday plea to canvas readers to think about what you put in your mouth this holiday season. Does it support sustainability? What about local farming? Is your holiday table an environmentally friendly one? Let me know by commenting below.