Featured photo: Christmas tree on hand | © Pixabay
Recently, both sons were passing through Heilbronn at the same time and were surprised to find that Advent had not yet arrived in our house. Less than five minutes later, I had brought the Christmas tree out of the basement, opened it up and connected it to electricity. The Advent wreath was also put up very quickly because it is also made of metal and, like the tree, is stored in the basement. Luckily, after last New Year's Eve, I had turned all the wax leftovers in the house into candles, so the first candle could also be lit.
Cast and not drawn as is usual with beeswax, because I wanted to match the new candles to the existing Advent wreath. When casting, I ignored the experiences I had in my childhood and simply used the wicks that I found, which led to a disproportion between the two sizes. But since I can melt down the resulting leftovers, this is only a small imperfection, which also corresponds to today's German esprit gaulois: more appearance than substance.
The aforementioned journey of our two sons leads me straight to the positive things of this year that is now drawing to a close. The eldest got engaged this year, immediately after successfully completing his academic training and can now call himself a teacher with a corresponding university degree. He outshone my performance at the time, as he needed two days less to complete his thesis and also achieved a better overall grade. He has now also completed his training as an infantry officer and, together with his earlier qualification as an emergency paramedic, now has three full professional qualifications.
Last month, the youngest son started his first job in a ministry in Stuttgart after successfully completing two studies and also moved into his first apartment there with his better half — apart from the various student apartments.
But that was probably all there was to it for the good things this year. And so the Advent season was quickly forgotten. It was only when I received a request late yesterday evening asking where my monthly newsletter was that I was reminded again of the approaching end of the year. Less than twenty minutes later, the December circular of the EUROPA-UNION Heilbronn and I was immediately a little annoyed that I hadn't read it through again before sending it. There are a few too many spelling and grammatical errors, so I came up with the idea of writing my Christmas letter for this year now - I assume that my year will not change much in the coming days.
For some time now, my mother has been taking care of my father, who needs more and more support due to his advanced age. Then in September, the unexpected happened: my mother fell and suffered serious brain injuries. As a result, she is now in a nursing home and my father visits her there every day. If it weren't for my better half, I don't know how I would cope with the current situation. As soon as your own children are out of the house, you have to look after your own parents. The difference is that children develop in a positive way.
But here too there is good news to report, because I now have more contact with those parts of the family who turned their backs on Heilbronn a long time ago. Sometimes I ask myself whether it was really smart to return to Heilbronn.
But what is really exciting for me is that my parents still take care of their "professional" affairs themselves and I can now take over in a quick rotation. And so it was perhaps not such a bad thing that my fellow citizens did not elect me to the local council in June and that I consequently gave up my position as chairman of the Free Voters; so I hope that I will be completely relieved of this task by the end of the year. At least the city administration recently stopped its prosecution, which gives us hope that we still have enough remnants of democracy, law and order in these difficult times.
This year I stopped some of my voluntary work, even though I sometimes still miss reading aloud at the elementary school and other institutions. Less so the tutoring with the older students, because they really don't want any help, but rather want to follow their parents, who, as completely useless members of our society, can at best justify their own existence as consumers. Since you can't let people starve, I'll stay with meseno.
I have continued my activities with the EUROPA-UNION this year, although my better half and I are increasingly limiting ourselves to local activities. There are many reasons for this and it is certainly also due to the overall situation. Interestingly, I have even expanded my involvement at Heilbronn University a little this year, but based on the experiences I had there, I will return to the status quo ante. The ideas of the students there are simply not compatible with my own ideas about education and knowledge - how the far more qualified lecturers can stand this or even process it is a mystery to me.
Looking back, I have to say that my family life and my own well-being have been neglected this year, my grill has not been used even once and I haven't even had a Christmas or New Year's Eve barbecue - wait! sGwuwl, I'm going to make the latter possible.
Many comrades and friends have continued to keep in touch with me this year, even if I have not contributed anything to it - I owe these good people my thanks and hereby request that they be punished justly.
Somehow it didn't work out that my better half and I could even keep a weekend free for ourselves, let alone a few days' vacation. I, at least, miss my time in the jacuzzi a lot, especially since we don't have a bathing culture in Heilbronn and the surrounding area - the Romans have simply been gone for far too long. Simply adding "Bad" in front of the place name is just as pointless as calling yourself a "university town" out of the blue.
But I'm complaining at a high level. In which city can you drive up and down the avenue all day long in a luxury car without a job and your own income and, if that's not enough, also drive through the pedestrian zone? How true, we live in a region of unlimited possibilities! All complaining is completely unnecessary, because if you still work here, it's your own fault - the employees of our city administration know that only too well.
In other regions, things are very different. Ukrainians - at least those who don't drive up and down the avenue all day - have been fighting for their very survival since 2022. People in Syria and many other parts of the world are in a similar situation. And those who are currently spared from the war are struggling with climate change and its consequences.
Only a very small proportion of people, like us in Heilbronn, can still believe that we are on an "island of the blessed" and are therefore prepared to do anything to be able to indulge in this delusion for as long as possible - they even vote for politicians who they know will only lie to them and cheat them! The Trumpists are also determining everyday political life here, and everywhere in the Western world, Democrats are in retreat.
And here in Heilbronn, this has already been elevated to art! At the front of the town hall, they pay homage to a Nazi and at the back of the town hall, they commemorate the victims of National Socialism - we have been making things too easy for too many people for far too long, the main thing being that we don't have to do anything about it ourselves or take responsibility for it. It is the rotten compromises alone that have brought our democracies to the brink of collapse. And until that happens, those primarily responsible for this will quickly write - no, have written - their own autobiography and reap the rewards again.
However, this time it does not look as if one can simply sit out one's misdeeds or inaction and be voted back to the feeding trough after one legislative period at the latest, because at some point even the largest supplies will run out - the failure of the current government can be seen as a warning sign. And actually I am really looking forward to how the current opposition, which wants to hold on to the so-called debt brake by all means, will suspend it immediately after taking office. And at the same moment the new opposition, which is still promoting the lifting of the debt brake as absolutely necessary, will defend it as a "German cultural asset" by all means - we voters simply do not want it any other way!
For most of us, and especially for politicians, democracy is nothing more than a "jungle camp" - the most German of German reality shows! At least as long as the others are drowning in the Mediterranean or falling in the trenches. And that is only human, because you don't believe that it can happen to you until it happens to you!
And this is probably my only realization of the last sixty-two Christmases: it has always been this way and it will always be this way. Even though most of us know how to make the world at least a little better, at least a little bit in our own community, we don't do it.
It would be so easy if everyone would just try to be themselves, take care of their own existence, maybe even look after those who are dear to them personally, and otherwise not envy their neighbors for what they perhaps even undeservedly achieve.
There is no need to try to save the world as a whole, it is enough if you manage to save yourself. And if someone has the capacity to achieve much more, then it would be enough if he did not step on his neighbors' toes in the process.
The world is so beautiful and so easy to handle, if only we humans didn't exist! This should give us all something to think about - especially before Christmas.
“There is no liberal world order anymore, and the aspiration to create one no longer seems real.”
Anne Applebaum (2024: 175)
