All was quiet at the North Pole, with the hustle and bustle of Christmas over. Santa and Mrs. Claus were taking their ease in front of a blazing fire that popped and cracked in a most satisfying fashion, while a third armchair was occupied by another man with a long white beard. A small child sat on the hearth, playing with Jack Frost the cat, who submitted to the child’s gentle attentions with patience.
“Another Christmas done,” said Santa with a sigh. “And almost time for you to be leaving us,” he added sadly, turning to the other man.
“Yes, my time here is almost over,” said the Old Year (for it was he). “How quickly the days have flown past!” He nodded to the New Year on the hearth, who was scratching the cat under its chin. “It seems only yesterday that I was sitting where he was, playing with Jack, and soon I go to be with my many ancestors.”
“I suspect you have a good deal you would like to tell him, if only you could,” said Santa, and Old Year nodded his head.
“Indeed, but as you know I am not allowed to pass on any advice, or warnings, save one. He must find his own way through his year, for better or worse.”
“What did you find, in your time here?” asked Santa. “I ask every year, to see how things have changed, or if they have changed, for the preoccupations of mankind — their hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, wants and needs — are remarkably similar, even as the world they live in changes.”
“I found many people who want to do the right thing, but who despair of how little impact their individual efforts will have,” said Old Year, after a moment’s consideration. “There are countless millions who acknowledge that the planet they call home needs their help, but who shrug sadly and say ‘My feeble effort will do nothing, so why bother?’”
“The Great Wall of China,” said Mrs. Claus, putting aside the book she had been reading. The other two looked at her, puzzled.
“The Great Wall of China took more than 2,000 years to complete,” she said by way of explanation. “The monument at Stonehenge took 2,000 years, and the Alhambra in Spain took more than 600 years to build. It also took more than 600 years to build Cologne Cathedral, 577 years to build Milan Cathedral, and 500 years to build Westminster Abbey. The Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota was started in 1948, and no one knows how long it will take to complete it.”
Seeing that the other two still did not see her meaning, she continued.
“The people who had the ideas for these things, who dreamed them and planned them and designed them; they and the people who built them must have known that they would never see them completed, that it would be hundreds of years before they were finished. How easy it would have been for those people to look at the impossibly long and difficult road before them and say ‘No, it is too hard, it will take too long!’ or ‘Why should I help build it; my puny effort will mean nothing in the great scheme of things?’ But they did it, and have left results that still stand.”
“You are a wise woman, my dear,” said Santa, then turned to Old Year, who was nodding in agreement. “You said you were only allowed to pass on one piece of advice, which I did not know. What is it?”
“Be kind,” said Old Year simply. “That is the one piece of advice I can pass to him, and having seen what I have over the past year, it is the best advice I can give, to him or anyone. Such a simple thing, too, yet so many people ignore it.”
He rose from his chair. “Now I shall leave you for a little while.” He smiled at Mrs. Claus. “Your words have given me a hankering to revisit a few places before I depart. As the great poet Louis Armstrong wrote and sang, it is indeed a wonderful world. I can only hope that its inhabitants appreciate the great gift they have been given, and tend to it carefully, to keep it safe for those who will follow.”
