Miracle in the C Concourse

Now that the holidays will almost be over, given that the day after tomorrow is New Year's day, I feel I can now express my two cents about Christmas without running the risk of spoiling anyone's holiday and putting their kids in therapy or something. Personally, I never felt the need for a radio station playing ONLY Christmas music between late-November and late-December, getting up at five AM so I can purchase a toaster at my local box store for $5 instead of $7, and clawing out some poor shop girl's eyes because the gift I wanted to get was $1 more than what they advertised in the circular. As with many things, the original Christmas was a very simple affair that has become the windfall event of travel and retail industries.
This year, there was a great deal of focus on travel, or lack thereof due to explosive underwear and inclement weather. Although I don't intend for this post to be a sermon, I was thinking about the story of Mary and Joseph and their journey of Bethlehem for the Roman census in reference to the issue of traveling around the holidays. Furthermore, I think if we look at the experience of these two travelers, even from a secular perspective, we can better appreciate their trials and how they compare with our own.
Here we have two people, a married couple, having to travel for business (in this case dealing with a census) and they end up stuck in the airport and the lady at the ticket counter in a voice similar to that you hear on the prerecorded messages says all the flights are canceled because of weather. Since everyone is snowed in, all the hotels are booked and, lo and behold, the wife goes into labor (yes, we are conveniently glossing over the fact that a lady 9-months pregnant was let within 50 feet of a plane, bear with me). In the middle of the night, between the rent-a-car booths and the baggage check she had to deliver her baby (again we are glossing over the fact that they could and would have found a way to get her to a hospital). Probably about now she is wondering why couldn't they do what all other Americans do around census time and just ignore it until someone shows up at their door.
Nonetheless, the baby is born and, after which, they're visited by some Hare Krishnas bearing duty-free gifts of Crown Royal, a gallon jug of Channel 5, and big blocks of Toblerone (they were out of gold and frankincense. Unfortunately, myrrh is on the FAA's list of banned substances for flights). Overall, two things are certain: they will not forget this evening and her husband is a dead man for dragging her along for this trip.
So what can we learn from a modern retelling of the Christmas story? First, that even after 2010 years it seems bean counters and bureaucrats haven't lost their knack to inconvenience us. Second, even if you are not particularly religious, the Christmas story shows us that at its core the holiday began with the experience of three people (although I doubt the baby Jesus was too hung up on the details) and how they experienced many of the frustrations and anxieties that we deal with during the holiday season and year round. Furthermore, just as they got through it all so will we for another year.