My sister Helen and her husband Don made the figures for the manger scene. Margaret and I put them out every year. This time when we went through the boxes of Christmas decorations, we couldn't find the baby Jesus. The wise men were there, and Mary and Joseph, and even the lambs were in a box together. We have a stand-in this year. Many years ago in Singapore we bought a little reclining jade Buddha. He is the right size so we put him into the manger scene. Flanked by the lambs, protected by the Holy Family, and watched over by the wise men the scene somehow seems right. It occurred to me that the world would be a better place if we could manage in the reality of 2006 to bring together figures from all the world's great religions.

It's a long way from a First Century stable in Bethlehem to a Twenty-first Century department store in San Diego. When I went to the mall for some last-minute shopping today, I saw another figure that seemed to have been misplaced. She was alone, half-dressed, standing in a corner with her detached arms flailing. Perhaps someone had bought the clothes right off her back. That scene, too, seemed to me to be an appropriate metaphor for Christmas, 2006.