I could ramble on about the whole spirit of Christmas and good will towards all men and women but that stuff is pretty self-evident and if it is not, then we as a community are really in deep trouble. Christmas is about something that our world needs badly and perhaps more importantly, what our inheritors, the children that shall inherit the Earth need to sustain them in the years and decades to come. This something I speak of is called Hope. It begins with and is nurtured by and sustained within the individual heart. And even when you think it might be lost, you can find it again if you look hard enough.
My take on Christmas and the gift of hope can be summed up in one little letter and editorial response. On Sept. 21, 1897, The New York Sun published what was to become the most widely read letter to a newspaper.
It was sent by 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon, who lived with her parents in Manhattan.
Below is the full text of that letter and the reply written by Sun editorial writer Francis Pharcellus Church.
Dear Editor, I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so."
Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon
115 W. 95th St.
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernatural beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God he lives and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10 thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
3 comments:
Ahhhh...Made me feel warm all over. Hope is all we need...OK Back to Reality....Well said in a perfect world.
Hope is all we have speaking from experience is all we need.
Hey we can probably sing the song "Imagine" and maybe understand the meaning of the word. Use word at own risk!!
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