posted 11 years ago
The emotion is pretty much catharsis... tear-jerker and heart-warmer, but it feels real and unforced.
The traffic statistics make the holidays one of the worst times to drive. Without doubt, one of the most terrible nights of the year for anyone in roadside services - traffic enforcement, ambulance, or ER. Not only are you working Christmas, but you are working with the people having the worst Christmas of their lives. It makes a huge difference that there are people with the stamina to do it year after year, and to do it to the best of their human ability. Think by contrast of some of Dickins' Christmas stories, about people freezing to death in the streets without a soul to care.
It has something in common with the best funerals: not happy of course, but very, very good.
-Erica