Only one month to go until Christmas! Last year at this time, I was asking myself: why do societies across time and space seem to have such a problem with carpenters who try to help people? Just over 2022 years ago, the parents of a certain carpenter-to-be weren't able to find a place to sleep in Bethlehem, and we all know how his efforts to help people 3 decades later were received by the authorities. One year ago, another carpenter who built tiny houses for homeless folks on the other side of the pond was forced to stop when the City of Toronto filed a court injunction against him. Let it be known - I have huge admiration for Khaleel Seivwright and his work, which continues in a slightly different form. So what does all of this have to do with music? For starters, Khaleel himself is a musician. Two years ago, when the first pandemic winter was raging and vaccines were not yet available, over 400 musicians (including me) formed an Ad Hoc group called Musicians Against Encampment Evictions and signed on to a letter opposing these evictions in Toronto. As our letter stated, "The shelter system is at capacity, and yet more people are being evicted from their housing every day. Now the city is asking some people to make an impossible choice: Go inside and risk dying of COVID in an unsafe emergency shelter or stay outside and freeze to death." Sadly, nothing has changed over the past two years; things have actually gotten worse. As The Shelter and Housing Justice Network recently wrote, "Accessing emergency shelter is now nearly impossible". Almost 150 people died on the street in Toronto in 2020, and that number rose to well over 200 last year. It's always so much easier to tear something down than it is to build something from the ground up, but people like Khaleel can't even imagine giving in to selfishness and destruction. Here's hoping that the next carpenter who tries to make all of our lives better is treated with respect and admiration.