Simple is Best in all Things

And never did that have more truth to it than in the fictionalized account of Glenn Beck's last Christmas with his mother. I recently read "The Christmas Sweater", written by him recently, and now on the NYT best seller list, to the chagrine of all liberals everywhere.

The story revolves around a young boy named Edward Lee. (Edward Lee is Beck's middle name.) Eddie is a boy who doesn't have much in the way of material possessions, but is surrounded by love and family his entire life, making him, in my mind, the richest man in the world.

Many of the accounts in the story are real, such as the real life name of his childhood family business where his father worked both as baker and owner, City Bakery, and the fact that both Edward's and Beck's mothers both died at an early age. The main difference is that in the story, Eddie's mother dies in a car accident. In reality, Beck's mother committed suicide when he was just 12 or 13 years of age.

That final Christmas, before his mother took her own life, Beck was given a handmade sweater by his mother, it being the only gift she could afford that year. It wasn't until much later in his life that Beck realized the importance of such a gift.

I highly reccommend this book to any and all looking for a chance at redemption, because that's what this book is about at it's core. Eddie is given a second chance at the end of the story, just as we all are entitled to second chances if we only seek to take advantage of them.

This past year has been a roller coaster for me, and The Christmas Sweater was a definite must read, even though I didn't know it at the time. The line that stuck out for me most was "the hardest part of every journey is realizing that you are worthy of the trip."

I haven't felt worthy of much these days, but now I believe I've turned that line of thinking into something more positive.