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With Christmas on her mind, columnist Aileen Eager ponders on what the man at the door collecting for charity is going through.

Look around you, they said. Where is Christmas, they said. You are running away, hiding from Christmas.

Where are your decorations, your red-berried holly, where are your pretty coloured lights, no, no, not that sad little pile of this year’s cards. Where is your festive spirit, Christmas music playing over and over. The sullen silence of your home is an affront to the season that is in it.

The knock on your door is loud and strong. In the limited space allowed by the door chain you survey one another. His face is fresh, young, clear-eyed, a hi-viz jacket contrasting with the gloom of the December day.

Words when they come are jumbled, tumbling over each other in a rush of eagerness. Concern, he says, have you heard of Concern. That much you are certain of. Your eyes move from his to the word C-o-n-c-e-r-n stamped clearly across the front of his jacket. Big black lettering.

You mumble something about getting your purse. But you leave the chain on the door.

A thought crosses your mind. It might be nice to engage this young man in conversation. Just a little time. Ask him where does he plan to go in life. His dreams for his future. Or the standard question, where does he see himself five years from now.

Did he watch the Taoiseach’s address to the nation - or coast to coast as they say in America. Micheal Martin’s response, what did he think of that. To probe a young mind. Find out what makes this young man tick. Ask him will there ever come a time when emaciated African toddlers will not stare accusingly from our TV sets, all eyes, huge frightened, contrasting with tiny wasted arms.

But no. That would be selfish, a selfish waste of this young man’s time, time that he has generously volunteered to devote to Concern. His life stretches before him. This Christmas, many more Christmases. Using his youth and strength to comfort hungry babies held in the arms of weary mothers staring unseeingly into a future they cannot contemplate.

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