The True Spirit of Christmas (courtesy of our German Brothers and Sisters)

This video made me weep.

It shows German animal rights activists preparing a wonderful meal of fruits and vegetables and then one of them, dressed as Santa Claus, delivers it to pigs inside of a factory farm. His solitary act of sharing represented, in my view, a gesture of profound kindness in a world full of cruelty and inhumanity.

Notice how the pigs gently share the meal with each other. Notice how they savor every bite. It is the same way they savor life, and the same way we, as human beings, savor living, and the same way the children savor it.

The language in the video is German, but really, this video speaks a universal language. It's the language of compassion. It's the language of humanity. It's the language of decency.

It has been said that the greatness of a society can be judged in how it treats its most vulnerable inhabitants. Today, no matter where you go, the most vulnerable are always the animals.

If that's the case, our world has a long ways to go. A long, long ways.

Let this video be a reminder of the real spirit of Christmas. When human beings finally live up to that spirit, when they live in accordance with what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature" - which will inevitably involve ending the exploitation, murder and consumption of animals - then, and only then, can we call ourselves a "civilization."

Meantime, watch this video and catch a glimpse of the meaningful yet simple goodness to which we all ought to aspire.