“To absent friends and family”
December 24th, 2008
Toasting our absent friends and family is a Christmas tradition in my family. I’ve always perceived it as a toast to those who have left us – those who can’t be with us but would really like to be. The Christmas table where we make the toast feels like the heart of the family, and my feelings are usually of sympathy for those who can’t be with us. I imagine them wishing they could be back home, possibly feeling a bit lonely wherever they are.
This year it feels different. I’m with family I haven’t seen for a while and part of the ritual of ‘catching-up’ involved a long list of “Did you know [insert friend's name] has left the country?” I’ve also been finding out about how family who have recently left are settling into their new lives in other parts of the world.
It suddenly struck me that our Christmas table would no longer be the core of the family. There will be tables in other parts of the world where a larger proportion of our family will be seated together. I have no doubt they will toast us – their absent family – as we will them.
But which of us is absent from the other? While toasting us in a strange land, will they wish we were ‘home’ with them? Or will they be wishing that they were home with us?
I can’t help but wonder (and dread) if our table will shrink in the course of 2009 – if the stragglers left seated next to me will also pack up and leave? I wonder which table I will be sitting at next year, and if it is possible that a table somewhere else could ever feel like home to me?
December 24th, 2008 22:30
High Court judge orders release of all activists immediately’
time….2015
link:-
http://africa.reuters.com/country/ZW/news/usnLO468734.html
December 25th, 2008 10:46
A toast from the heart from Germany…A lot of people are thinking of you Zimbabweans this Christmas Day no matter how far away.
December 26th, 2008 08:57
Hope…Angels are watching over Zimbabwe and many of them have human faces. Like yours!
May your Christmas be peaceful and may this coming New Year bring peace and freedom to all Zimbabweans, wherever they may be.
December 26th, 2008 11:41
A hearty toast to all those Zimbaweans brave enough to still weather the storm in Zimbabwe. I would also like to say to all Zimbabweans outside of their borders, we all are thinking of you and our prayers are that this awful situaton come to a close in 2009 so we all can go home and celebrate a new beginning and an end to the most awful since Hitler. God Bless you all !!
December 27th, 2008 10:25
Maybe it should be a toast to scattered friends. We must inhabit almost every country on every continent now. It is so good to assemble in critical masses at Christmas. A critical mass is the number of people needed to feel the old Zimbo spirit flowing freely once again. Here’s to 2009. Next year must be better! See you on Facebook.
Love and blessings Wheels.
December 31st, 2008 15:00
a toast for the new year, for the zimbos around the world.We wish the new year comes with good tidings and that that man will finaly come to his senses and release our bros and sisters who are suffering down thre.Happy new year is filled with hope and love.
January 1st, 2009 22:20
Helen Suzman, a woman of remarkable bravery, has died. She was for many years the sole anti-Apartheid MP in the South African Government. But she also criticised both Mbeki and Mugabe. She was also twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was particularly proud of the “perverse honour” bestowed upon her by Mugabe when he declared her ‘an enemy of the state’ in 2001. May she rest in peace.
January 4th, 2009 14:01
It is difficult for me to wish anyone at this sad moment in time (in Zimbabwe, Gaza, Dafour, Iraq, Afghanistan etc) a happy new year.
I will still brave it although I am not in the least happy.
I look ahead to 2009 with trepidation and disgust at those who derive happiness out of the terrible plight of those they exploit.
Happy new year!?