Yes, Virginia

So I started typing this the other day, but since my home computer had been fritzing I never got a chance to finish it. So here it is now. And vovat just posted about Santa Claus too, so it's a whole theme weekend rather than the theme evening it was originally.

Well, geekparents is all a-flutter with Santa Issues tonight. Me being very busy, I haven't added any more Great Essays on the Importance of Myth since I wrote the first one, but this seems like a good excuse to continue. I actually wrote an essay on the subject of Santa in my paper journal a few years ago, but I don't have that with me right now, so I'll just go off the top of my head (my computer at home has some virus issues right now, so I don't know when I'm getting back on that). (obviously that is an old part)

The question gets asked among parents of how to address the issue of Santa Claus. I can understand if, for one principle or another, a family decides not to, what, perpetrate the Myth of Santa in their household? I am okay with that. But the reasoning that grates on my very sense of being, thanks to my deep-rooted love of Myth and Story, is "Telling kids that there is a Santa is lying to them."

Lying. That is the word that is troublesome. LYING. If something is not factual, why is it automatically a LIE? Is it lying to write, read, or tell a fictional story? Is it lying to play dress up and make-believe? Is it lying, on a more profound level, to speak of Heaven or of God when no one has any proof that either actually exists?

Santa is not a lie. Santa on the simplest level is a game of Make-believe. I, being the oldest child in my family, kept playing that game for years after I knew no magical man was coming down our chimney. Heck, I think Santa STILL comes to my parents' house, and I know no one there actually THINKS a mythological break-in actually took place. Just pretending that maybe it DID happen adds a bit of magic, of fun, and maybe most of all a True Spirit of Giving.

The most important thing about Santa is that he gives without expecting anything in return, save a few cookies perhaps. Santa is not concerned that you reciprocate with a gift of your own of approximately equal monetary value. Santa just gives because it's the GIVING that is so nice.

Santa exists when each of us take on that responsibility. Santa exists because we bring that spirit to life by giving without thought of getting. The code name "Santa" allows us to stay humble, to give (even if only playfully) anonymously-- to give without that tagged-on expectation of Reward.

Santa exists, and will go on existing as long as people keep giving to each other in that same Spirit. I am proud to say that I have been Santa for the past five years and have loved every minute of it. I love the little touches of magic, the silly surprises, the opportunity to imbue Christmas morning (and in a sense every day) with a sense of unexpected Joy, not Joy because of getting stuff, but Joy for the effort put in by family and friends... and Santa... to make you smile.

Maybe the Christmas Spirit would be purer if, instead of less Santa, we had MORE Santa-- if we ALL had the courage and the heart to give regardless of what we might get back.

"Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most." --Secondhand Lions, 2003.

So here's a holiday survey I haven't done before, in lighter news:
( Survey )

I have more and perhaps more interesting things to post, but I need my home computer for that, so I'll get back to you.