One of my favorite Christmas carols is "Do You Hear What I Hear?" I first heard it as a teenager. While I knew it was a modern addition to the classical favorites of the season, it is only in recent years that I learned it was composed during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962.
The dramatic historical moment associated with this song may explain my partiality to it. Although I was a child at the time of the missile crisis, I have never since (even today) felt such anxiety about what the future might hold. During the frightening fortnight of that crisis, I had a nightmare about nuclear war that still lives vividly in my memory.
"Do You Hear What I Hear?," with its message of the good news of Christ's birth spreading far and wide, seems to me a hopeful prayer for peace more than a Christmas carol. But it works beautifully as both. Wishing you a Merry Christmas--and peace in 2022.
