Christmas is a special time on campus. A quiet descends as the students depart; the sidewalks and corridors are still; the faculty and staff slow their pace a bit after the exertions of one semester end and before the next begins. Lawrence is a university town and it, too, becomes a special place during the holiday break. The streets are bedecked with colorful lights and festive decorations (as well as the occasional undressed protester).

Folks hurry along to do their last-minute shopping but always seem to have time to say a few words to friends or neighbors they meet on the street. It’s really quite fun to wander around the campus and the town at this time of year.

When I was growing up in New York City I used to dream of living in a town like Lawrence and of working at a university like Kansas University. I’m not sure why this was so. I never managed to travel very far from New York when I was a child. There was one trip to Miami in winter and another to the Catskills in summer. The farthest west I made it before I was an adult was Philadelphia.

Perhaps, in retrospect, it was all of those old movies about small towns that were on television around Christmas. I especially liked “It’s a Wonderful Life;” my wife and I still watch it every year at this time. And I think what I found most appealing about small-town life as a child dreaming of a place without subways, skyscrapers, and all the accouterments of big city life was the sense of belonging and of having neighbors that I didn’t have growing up in a high-rise apartment building in New York.

In all the years I lived in New York in various apartments, I don’t really remember ever getting to know my neighbors. They were the people who lived down the hall from us whom I occasionally encountered in the elevator. But they weren’t people I knew as friends or even acquaintances. I found city living to be anonymous living and, quite honestly, I didn’t like it very much.

My entire adult life has been spent in college towns and I’ve always treasured all the special things about small town, especially college town, living. Of course, we have our problems here at KU and in Lawrence. Money is tight; the economy is bad; there are homeless folks on the streets and many families who will have poor holidays because of misfortune and poverty.

All of this we must work harder to eliminate. But in spite of all this there is also something wonderful about Lawrence as a community and about KU; there is a spirit here, I think, that truly represents the best that America has to offer. It is the spirit of neighborliness, of tolerance, and of caring. It is a belief in common decency and civility.

Christmas is a time of peace and a time to give thanks. It is a time to recognize all of the good things we have and to try to help others who have less. We have so much here in Lawrence and at KU and I think that we can all have even more if we just try to be a little kinder and a little more thoughtful and a little more caring of each other.

And, of course, we should all be thankful. I know how blessed my wife and I are to be able to live and work here and to have you all as neighbors. It’s hard for me to imagine a better life or a better place to teach or live. And so, on this holiday, let me just say “thank you” to all of you, my friends and neighbors, and God bless, and have a wonderful holiday.

— Mike Hoeflich is a professor in the Kansas University School of Law.