Heres to hoping we can get back on track in the new year

Little Mac last time we visited was 16 months and just learning to walk. The low table with the wooden train set was a perfect place to practice.
Around and around the table he went, pushing the toy train. Along the straight, around the corner, up over the overpass, through the tunnel, it went. His eyes flashed and he squealed with delight as the train followed his every wish. Even when it went off the track he was able to right it and continue on his way.
Eventually he tired and grandpa took over. Having a longer reach, I could manipulate switches and follow the intricate patterns of the layout. My delight, I think, was right up there with his. I did refrain from squealing, although in my mind I was making train noises.
Some things don't change. Even after 75 years I am still fascinated with toy trains and real ones.
In this pause between Christmas and New Year's comes my birthday. In many ways it is not a good time to be born.
Being so near the other celebrations, the parties and gift giving tend to be subdued. But at the height of the season of hope and with a new year dawning, it is a time for reflection and taking stock.
Having arrived on what was touted as the coldest day in many a year, and far out in the country where there was no thought of hospital births and the doctor had to arrive by horse and sleigh, it was a different world from where we are now.
The simple warm life of a rural community, or so it seems in hindsight, is a far cry from the intensity and awareness of the life that surrounds us today.
Even here in the idyllic setting of a lovely lake, the concerns of the world press in upon the soul. The latest financial crisis, which devastates some very severely, and all of us in many ways, threatens the very fabric of the world's economic and social life. The ongoing wars, famine and disease, which uproot and destroy the lives of so many, hang like a dark and threatening cloud.
The machinations of our Federal government leave us divided and bewildered. We don't see any Barck Obama on our horizon as an alternative to our wannabe dictator - now a born-again bail-outer - unless Michael Ignatieff suddenly transforms or the coalition takes on a charmed life.
I am thankful for having been brought up in a reasonably liberal family and community. Political beliefs were held quite strongly, but people went back to being good and friendly neighbours as soon as the election was over.
Religious persuasions were divided between Presbyterian and United. Again, people held firmly to their particular brand of faith, but most didn't talk about it much and quietly accepted one another.
I escaped being initiated into the hard edges of fundamentalist beliefs. Thinking for myself was not frowned upon. I remember my dad and the minister having great arguments. But they were always friendly exchanges, for each had a high regard and respect for the other. They provided a good model, even if I have not always been able to follow it.
I have a fear of radically held beliefs that leave no room for different views. If I have the truth and you don't it's not a long step for me to start questioning your intelligence, faith or at worst your right to exist.
And this applies in the political realm as well as the religious. We've seen it happen in the (not so) United States. It has been extremely divisive, almost to the point were there are two nations within one framework, and neither can talk civilly to the other. I fear the same thing is happening in Canada. When politicians begin to demean, belittle and demonize one another we are on dangerous ground. There is no room for the exchange of ideas, compromise or consensus; the ground upon which tolerance and democracy are built.
But a new year beacons. Life flows on and creativity happens. Hopefully, we, like Mac, can get the train back on the track, when it wanders off.
Happy New Year.

Don Murray is a retired
United church minister