Dear Customers and Friends,
If you were to miss Christmas, would anyone miss you?
That’s the question behind a short story written by John Edgar Park, a New England minister and college president during the Great Depression.
The tale begins on Christmas Eve as a banker named George Mason is the last to leave the office. George is unmarried and lives alone. He also avoids people and social gatherings, even turning down an invitation that year from his brother’s family to join them for the holidays. You see, his brother’s children are irritating and get on his nerves.
George is a talented musician, but he rarely shares his gift. In fact, he had recently turned down a friend who asked him to play the piano at a home for the elderly.
Sounds a little like Ebenezer Scrooge, doesn’t he?
Well, the story takes an interesting turn when George accidentally locks himself in the bank’s vault while closing up. Panicking, he hurls himself at the heavy steel door and begins screaming for help. But remember – everyone else had already left for the holidays to spend time with friends and family. George is alone in the dark, and no one will miss him because he had planned to spend a quiet Christmas all by himself.
There is no great escape or last-minute miracle in this story. George Mason indeed misses Christmas that year, spending 36 hours in a tomb-like encasement, hungry and miserable.
On the morning after Christmas, the bank’s head clerk comes in at the usual time and opens the safe before heading to his desk. He misses seeing George staggering out and running to the water cooler to quench his thirst. No one else notices as he quietly leaves for home to clean up and wolf down a hot breakfast.
Then he returns to work, though not the same man as before. The harrowing experience had given him lots of time to think – about himself, his selfishness, indifference and pride. And like Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol,” he also pondered the meaning of Christmas and the coincidence of being locked away on a religious holiday celebrated for its worldwide message of love and giving.
You might guess the rest of the story, but it ends a year later on Christmas Eve with George secretly retrieving a note from a private safe inside his office. It was a message written to himself on New Years Day, a few days after his imprisonment inside the bank vault. Quietly, he reads his words, then locks up and leaves.
This time, he is in a hurry. His nephews are expecting him to trim the Christmas tree. It has to be finished in time to attend the Christmas play that evening with his brother and sister-in-law. He is even laughing with joy as they jostle through the crowds on their way to the show.
This Christmas, I pray that you will open your own heart. Be there for your family and do something for those less fortunate. Wish for everyone a merry Christmas, and honor this holiest of days by spreading the love of Christ all around you.
Blessed to be a Blessing,
Greg Syfan
President, Syfan Logistics
“To love people, to be indispensable somewhere, that is the purpose of life. That is the secret of happiness.”
– George Mason’s handwritten note to himself