O'Henry's "The Gift of the Magi's" simple metaphor for the true reason of giving and receiving at Christmas ... the late great Phil Johnson's yearly recollection of this on WWL-TV ....
Pic: Public Domain
A Santa like figure who I grew up with in New Orleans and used to see and enjoy as an adult every week on television per editorials was the late Phil Johnson, a New Orleans broadcasting legend who died in 2010.
Phil was a former WWL-TV news director, documentary writer/producer and assistant general manager who had a figure and beard like Santa.
Phil would always end his practical and easy to understand editorial messages with a polite, “Good Evening,” and then sign his name dramatically and visually to the message.
I got to really appreciate another side of Santa per Phil's yearly recounting of the classic O'Henry short story, "The Gift of the Magi."
Year after year, I would be glued to the tv - long before video recorders, dvds, etc. - and cherish the provocative description of love between Della and Jim.
Della sold her prized long hair to buy her husband a watch chain, and Jim sold his special inherited watch to buy her elegant combs for her knee-length hair.
This still brings goose bumps to me as I reflect on this simple metaphor for the true reason of giving and receiving at Christmas.
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Thank you, St. Nicholas and Phil Johnson, for showing us the cheerful way
To be more sharing with God's blessings to all, we surely pray
Whether we're children and dreaming of all kinds of new toys
Or grownups and playing Santa while no longer girls and boys
May we give out the gifts that we're blessed to surely know
And not hold them so tightly that we're stifled and can't grow
Pic: Public Domain
