Between saving the Christmas holidays or protecting people's lives, I undoubtedly prefer the latter. It is sensible and it is human. It is the very meaning of this annual celebration in which a good part of humanity participates and in which we exalt the congregation, particularly with our most loved and close beings.
All the precautions we take are few when it comes to family approach, meeting with friends or entertaining with co-workers. Given the circumstances, the best celebration we can have is to act responsibly and postpone for better dates the numerous appointments that usually fill our agendas at this time of year.
Other cultures do not have this problem because their celebrations take place at other times of the calendar and respond to other motivations, although with a spirituality as deep and felt as ours. However, by taking care of ourselves responsibly, we also show our respect for those who have nothing to celebrate these days.
So let's not be confused. The Christmas spirit does not consist of taking to the streets looking for crowds and brightly lit places to consume objects as if there were no tomorrow and trying to escape from loneliness. It doesn't consist of that, although I can only show my most sincere solidarity with the businessmen and workers who place their hope in the sales of these days for the immediate future of their companies and their families.
We live in strange, unknown times that invite us to discern between what is truly important in our lives, and nothing more valuable than our loved ones, especially fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, who are the most vulnerable. Let's enjoy them and take care of them with all the preventions.
Let's have a memory for science and scientists, and let's vote for a better coexistence that frees us from the grotesque and unbreathable environment to which some want to reduce our common country project. Let us gather in intimacy and toast to health and life, and light a candle for those who are absent.
Fco. Manuel Fajardo Palarea, PSOE senator for Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
