Christmas Wishes

I don't like being nervous. But Kingston has an uncanny ability to make me nervous sometimes. Now that it's Christmas, I'm on high alert.

Being in insurance, I'm painfully aware of the kinds of things that happen during the season- cars stolen, car jacking, the works. Looking a few months back, I did some training in the Claim department, and was taught to take accident reports. The very first report I did was one where a car was stolen- a mother and her young daughter were exiting the premises of a family friend and heading to their car. Two vehicles pulled up and men alighted brandishing guns. The men ordered them away from the car, hitting and injuring the daughter in the process. They then took the car and drove away. The mother was in tears as she related the story to me. It was an all too real experience. For the time she sat in front of me, she wasn't a statistic, or a story in the papers. She was a real person with emotions and tears. And to think this kind of thing happens much more than we'll ever really know.

Every now and then we get emails at work from security firms informing us of what's going on out there on the roads- how people are getting held up and how to reduce the chances of it occurring. It's just really sad to me that we should have to experience such a harsh reality. And this year, like all years before, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year... to steal cars... and everything else.

As I nervously walked the plazas last night a guy dashed through the crowd with a shopping bag. I'm almost sure he stole it from someone's hands. I imagined how disheartened I would've been if my father's 9K gift was to be snatched from my hands. $9,000 of my salary, gone just like that.

I've yet to spend a little time in Red Hills at Lookout Point, or, as my girlfriend humorously (and accidentally) called it, Gun Point. I can't stand the idea of going for a romantic moment and ending up being robbed. I can't enjoy romance if I'm staring over my shoulder every 2 seconds.

In recent weeks I've been reluctant to go on the road, and my girlfriend hasn't been extremely happy about it. But she understands. These are serious times. We need to keep safe. There's too much to celebrate for us to be so on edge. For many of us, Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year, and I wish we could all keep it that way.

On that note, a very Merry, peaceful and safe Christmas to all.

And remember the message of the season.