KINDNESS AND SOME GARLIC

When I was young, my grandmother had all kinds of old country remedies and cures for what ailed you.

After all, her mother had come to the United States just about 10 years before she was born in 1914. So the family ties and traditions to Slovakia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, were still fresh.

Most of the cures involved drinking blackberry brandy, which probably wouldn’t be on any doctor’s list now.

On New Year’s Day, my grandmother (Baba) pulled out all the stops. There was garlic to be rubbed on top of your head; that was supposed to make you smart. There was honey and bread on the table, along with the ham dinner and pierogis. The honey was to be put on your forehead; it was to make you “sweet” all year. Most of the time, it just got in your hair and made a sticky mess.

But the first thing you had to do on New Year’s Day, was wash your face with money. I kid you not. My grandmother had filled the sink in our upstairs bathroom with pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and the occasional half-dollar. You ran the water, grabbed some coins and tried to cover as much of your face as possible. This, of course, was to make you prosperous in the coming year. It didn’t always mean in a financial way; but just successful in your life and endeavors.

I get the feeling that after all that we have gone through in 2020, maybe now is the time to bring back some superstitions of days past. After all, it couldn’t hurt. The pandemic blew up the year and continues to deliver the pain of death and loss all across the world. And I hate to say, January might be our most devastating month of this pandemic yet.

We desperately need for 2021 to be a better year. But we can’t wait for the year to deliver, we have to make it better from the start. We as Catholics, as human beings, need to be nicer to people. Be kind, it’s that simple. I remember watching a show on TV last month, I am not sure what it was about, but it showed doctors washing the feet of the homeless as part of an outreach of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. It was striking to me, very Christ-like, and something that I often think about. The goal was to treat people with respect, making them feel like their lives had value and they were valuable people.

I want to treat everyone with that level of respect and kindness this year, and that includes on social media. In the past I have tweeted things without thinking about the consequences. Perhaps it’s good just to stay off social media in general, there is nothing to be gained from the swamp of hate that is Facebook.

In going along with that theme, and taking some advice from Bishop Ed (who better, right?), we should stop trying to label people, listen to everyone and try to find something that we all have in common. That is what the Bishop said in his interview with The Evangelist when I asked him how we could heal our nation which is more divided than ever.

If we start conversations or social media posts off with a negative perception about someone or something there aren’t many places to go up from there. We are all human beings; not just Catholics or Jews or Muslims, Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives.

If we try to be the face of Christ to everyone we meet, the world can be a great place. This may sound daunting but just treat people the way that you want to be treated. This could easily be done for the most devout Christian to someone who has fallen from the faith or to someone livestreaming Masses.

If those ideas don’t grab you, you can never go wrong starting off the year with some garlic, honey and a sink full of pocket change.