I just wanted to send out a special situation report to all members of Get Up Nation in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve. This message is for all of you who are out there right now, doing what you gotta do. When so many are tucked in their warm beds, well fed, dreaming in the bliss of security, there are so many of you out there, creating it.

Whether you’re a cop who just talked someone out of suicide or just untangled some family members tearing each other to shreds immersed in substances and alcohol and holiday stress or whether you just bore the barrage of someone who’s lost all semblance control and cursed and spat and fought with you while you remained professional with supreme empathy and restraint,

Whether you’re a nurse working the night shift, stomaching the tragedies that barrel through the ER doors while you slug down coffee, hoping you get home in time to see the kids open their presents. May the vicarious trauma you endure lend sweetness to the moments with your families as you know how bad things can be, and know also how good things can be as a result of staring life and death square in the eyes shift after shift and shift,

Whether you’re a paramedic or EMT doing your best to revive and console, storming chaos to save life,

Whether you are in the mental health field, and steel yourself with self-care in anticipation of the investments you will make in others during the holidays, so that in holidays to come the Crisis of this one will prevent them from deploying permanent solutions to temporary problems,

Whether you’re going to be working all night on your start up because it’s your passion and the greatest holiday gift you experience is bringing your idea into reality,

Whether you are in a hospital bed or on your own bed at home, suffering from injury or disease,

Whether you are the loved one of a person who has served in the military or a member of a Gold Star family whose every holiday is accompanied by the memory of a fallen loved one,

Whether you are a member of the all volunteer United States Armed Services shivering through the night, in a place no one even knows about, in a place no one even knows America is,

Thank you, we honor you.

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