I was reminded during this Christmas season of two very special events that demonstrated human empathy at an unexpected level and in two completely different scenarios. I knew both stories, but had forgotten them until I read recent reports that reminded me: they come from 1914 and 1955, but from totally different worlds.
In 1955, the Sears Roebuck Company, which was the premier mail-order company in the U.S. at the time, put an advertisement in its catalogue giving a phone number that kids could call to “speak to Santa” and ask for the presents they wanted on Christmas Day. The story is not clear as to whether Sears misprinted the number or whether the kid, who is at the center of this amazing story, reversed two numbers when she dialed it. Whichever version is true, it wasn’t Santa who answered the phone but the head of the U.S. Air Force office that tracked incursions by Russian bombers during the Cold War, Colonel Harry Shoup; that office later became known as NORAD, and still operates today out of Colorado Springs, albeit with a much broader brief of tracking and monitoring all sorts of things, many of which are highly classified.
The Colonel who answered the phone that day showed a sense of human empathy not normally attributed to military officers in charge of secret military offices. He didn’t just tell his secretary to get that “idiot off the phone”. He actually listened to that small voice that said, “Santa, is that you?” and realized it was actually a kid on the other end. After a quick mental recovery, he said, “Yes, this is Santa, what can I do for you”. The kid could hardly believe her good fortune and excitedly told “Santa” what she wanted for Christmas. They chatted for a short while, and the Colonel reminded the kid to be good and wished her a Merry Christmas.
Days later, or perhaps weeks, the Colonel was wrestling with a public relations report for his office: The Air Force wanted to let the general public know that it was protecting them – this was the era when many Americas were building bomb shelters in their back yards against fears of a Russian nuclear attack. The Colonel came up with the brilliant idea that the technology he commanded could be used to track Santa Claus and his reindeer on their journey around the world from the North Pole.
I can only imagine what his bosses said when he put forward his idea but, somehow, they agreed to let him try!
Seventy years later, NORAD is still tracking Santa and his reindeer as they crisscross the world on Christmas Eve, and his journey is available, live, for all kids to watch. The live feed currently shows a couple of U.S. Air Force Fighter jets escorting the sleigh, and has the narrator explaining that those jets are there as a courtesy because Santa is a better navigator than they are.
I watched BBC news on Christmas Eve, and the reporter broke into her presentation to announce that NORAD tracking had reported Santa’s sleigh has just passed over Paris heading south!!
We need far more of such human empathy, especially with things that really matter, like our kids’ imaginations.
The second story almost defies belief, but it has been well-documented, despite the allied high command during World War I trying to deny and suppress it.
In 1914, World War I had only just started, but the horrors of trench warfare in northern France had already reduced most soldiers to despair and resignation to almost unimaginable mutilations and death. What happened on the Western Front, in many locations, on Christmas Eve that year, was apparently spontaneous, as well as astonishing. During a lull in the shelling, British troops heard Christmas carols, sung in German, coming from the enemy trenches, which were only yards away. They responded with the same carols, in English; “Silent Night” appeared to be the carol of choice. Slowly, a German stood up above the trench parapet – a British soldier stood up – they climbed out of their trenches and slowly walked towards each other and shook hands. Suddenly, more troops from both sides were shaking hands, wishing each other Merry Christmas, and exchanging small gifts of food. Some of these incidents lasted an hour or so, and some lasted for several hours even, in some cases, resulting in quickly organized football matches in no-mans-land. Human empathy knows no limits.
Eventually, both sides went back to their trenches and started killing each other again … for another three years. The top command, on both sides, were horrified when they found out – they thought it was as serious lack of discipline and detrimental to morale. They made sure that on subsequent Christmas Eves, the sound of guns completely obliterated any sound of carols being sung.
I should add that over the years, I have occasionally seen World War I, and II, reunions where former German and Allies soldiers embraced and seemed to exude human empathy.
Maybe we should figure out how to cultivate and encourage this seemingly indestructible facet of human behavior, instead of, like the high commands in 1914 France, trying to suppress and obliterate it. We would all be a great deal better off if empathy was a major part of our lives. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
