Knowingly or unknowingly innocence
gets killed in all of us. Somewhere deep down we regret that a lot. Remember the days
when Santa Clause and Tooth Fairy were true and one of the much awaited
visitors? As we grew up, these angelic characters faded away behind the
curtains of so-called reality. Either we caught our parents secretly putting
gifts for us tagging it with Santa’s signature or we got mocked down by our friends
for believing in these fantasy creatures. Both ways, a little hope is us died
and suddenly world became more ‘practical’. I don’t say that we shouldn’t face
the reality and should always remain in a make believe world where everything
is ideal, but I beg you to keep that child alive in you, the child that
makes you believe in miracles. Because it is this child that will help you sail
across the most troubled storms of your life.
Here’s an article I came across.
It’s about an eight year old girl called Virginia, who was hell bent on keeping
her Santa real, despite being teased by her friends. She didn’t want to give up
on her belief in miracles. Somehow I could relate to it. I guess you might also spot a little part of you hidden in this article.
Back in 1897, New York’s
newspaper, Sun, was the most credible source of information to people. It was believed
that ‘It’s true if it’s in the Sun’. So, little Virginia sent a letter to the
editor of Sun, asking him to clarify once and for all if Santa was for real.
Here is her letter and what the editor Francis Pharcellus Church replied to her.
Both of these letters went into print and became history’s most reprinted
newspaper editorial.
Virginia’s letter:
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 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET
Response of the Editor:
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 of 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 may 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 supernal
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, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will
continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
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Merry Christmas friends
Don’t stop believing in miracles. There is a Santa who sees
all the good and bad you do, and he rewards you with miracles when you need
them the most.
