"For Christmas"

I think I may have seen the true meaning of Christmas the other day, a meaning that shuns the commercialization and stress of the holidays and gets to the heart of its meaning. Those of us who play this APBA game can probably relate.

I was in a drug store late this past week, grabbing up prescriptions and getting last-minute Christmas cards to send out, hoping they’d reach their destinations in time and, thus, conforming to the holiday requirements.

Without sounding too politically incorrect, I noticed an obviously handicapped woman in her 30s looking at a rack of toys in the store. She took one out and showed it to the person who was with her.

“An airplane,” she said with glee.

She looked at it, turning the toy plane in her hands, all while beaming a large smile.

“Do you want it,” the person asked her.

“For Christmas,” she said.

And there it was. Despite whatever reason life took a steaming dump on her and left her facing her handicap, be it genetic, environmental, whatever, she was happy. She found something she liked and wanted to get it, citing the holiday of giving.

I thought of my own life. We’re constantly on the treadmill of life, running to our job (in my case, two jobs and a freelance writing startup attempt); trying to pay bills on time; dealing with stresses, illnesses of getting older, aches and pains; and just trying to be a decent provider and human. Christmas lately seems more a stumbling block than a time of joy and celebration.

When I was in news, I’d usually work the holiday so others could be off to be with their families. Invariably, I’d end up writing some tough story. One year, on Christmas Eve, I went to a small airplane crash that killed the pilot. Another year, I covered a suspected arson fire of former Pres. Bill Clinton’s boyhood home. It was hard seeing the meaning of Christmas when you were covering the downside of humanity.

But the woman in the drug store sparked something in me.

And here’s where APBA comes in. Many of us, I assume, became initiated with the game at an early age through Christmas. I did. I had played various sports games as a youngster – electric football and baseball, Pop Tarts card baseball and Sherco II baseball.  My parents got me the APBA football game in 1977 as what I call the “headliner” of Christmas – the present pushed far beneath the tree and handed out at the last because it was the best gift.

Now, 42 years later, I continue to play APBA. It’s been baseball for the past 21 years mostly, but I still have the football game, along with a collection of hockey, basketball and baseball games and seasons accrued over the years.

And, like I’ve said here before, what other game have we carried with us and kept it as a mainstay through our lives? On Christmas night Wednesday, I plan to roll a few more games in my replay, this time the 1947 season, like I’ve done so many Christmas over the past four decades.

With all that is going on now in my world – dealing with life, a new job, depression and all, there is still joy in the game. I think that’s one of the great appeals of the APBA products. It gives us a chance to revert back to our younger days when life wasn’t so much of a struggle.

So this holiday season, think of how the APBA game still gives us joy and happiness, and try to hold onto that for a while. I know I will.

You know … for Christmas.