On Christmas Eve in 1914, British, French, Belgian and German soldiers in the trenches along the Western Front early in the first World War engaged in a spontaneous and unplanned truce. According to Graham Williams of the Fifth London Rifle Brigade, "First the Germans would sing one of their carols and then we would sing one of ours, until when we started up 'O Come, All Ye Faithful' and the Germans immediately joined in singing the same hymn to the Latin words 'Adeste Fideles.' And I thought, well, this is really a most extraordinary thing--two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war."

The next morning, on Christmas Day, in some places the German and Allied soldiers met in person. German soldiers emerged from their trenches calling "Merry Christmas" in English; in other places along the line, Germans held up English signs reading "You no shoot, we no shoot." The troops exchanged gifts of cigarettes, food, buttons and hats, and the truce enabled both sides to collect and bury their dead from the "no man's land" between the opposing trenches. The British high command didn't see this as a touching example of humanity, but as a subversion, and a danger to the morale of the soldiers. General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien ominously warned, "troops in trenches in close proximity to the enemy slide very easily, if permitted to do so, into a 'live and let live' theory of life."

In 1930, British soldier Murdoch M. Wood stated about The Christmas Truce of 1914, "I then came to the conclusion that I have held very firmly ever since, that if we had been left to ourselves there would never have been another shot fired."

It's a wonderful story, one we might think was apocryphal, in our cynical age, if it wasn't so well documented. It also casts quite a long shadow over our current times.

Can you imagine any such "truce" between the rigidly polarized factions in the United States today? Can you imagine the Proud Boys sharing Christmas carols and beer with a Black Lives Matter group? Socialist Bernie supporters trading gifts and food with MAGA Trump boosters? Protesters at an emotional rally laying down their signs, and their outrage, out of respect for a cause they both shared?

If soldiers who had been engaged in shooting and shelling each other only a day before could find peace, all on their own; if Belgian and French soldiers whose homelands, friends and families had been attacked and destroyed by the Germans could put their weapons down and talk, just because it was Christmas, why is it so hard for Americans to stop acting as though their own neighbors and kindred citizens were their worst enemies?

Americans think of themselves as both very diverse and as having irreconcilably different attitudes, opinions and beliefs. But our belief in our differences is highly exaggerated. To people living in other countries, all Americans are more alike than different. There's an "American cultural personality" which is well-known to everyone else. Only Americans are oblivious to it.

Part of this comes from our toxic individualism, wherein most Americans see themselves, their "identity" and their own concerns as the most important things in the whole world. We're not used to thinking of anything as truly larger than ourselves. Even religious Americans think of God as being "on their side" and going along with their own opinions and preferences--not vice versa.

To those soldiers in 1914, Christmas was more important than individuals, and peace was more important than any disputes or vendettas. Soldiers have one thing in common: they just want to stop fighting and go home. "Winning" as an abstraction isn't such a big deal (not as big as "not dying," definitely).

It's Christmas in 2020, and many of us feel like we've been at war for the last nine months. But do we really need to be? Suppose we, too, decide to burn all our signs and banners, make new ones that say, "you no shoot, we no shoot," and climb out of our trenches to meet half-way? Wouldn't that be a great way to start a brand new year?

Well, I can dream. A very Merry Christmas to you all.

Inanna Arthen