santa was here

our Editorial in the Christmas issue of the paper

Santa Claus was here and mingled with us. yes, he existed together with his red nosed reindeer, his elves, Frosty the snowman, and the Grinch.

he was here and existed because we were kids who never knew how to ask. Santa et al personified the kid inside us; the kid that knew no unreasonable realities and empirical impossibilities. they all existed because we never clouded our minds with the hundreds of reasons that disputed their existence. we never allowed the realities that the north pole is inhabitable and that deer dont fly dispute the chance for us to believe. we held our belief strong until we learned that there is already no sense in waiting for saint nick to sneak through the chimney to drop our presents.

we had immersed ourselves into complications that we had forgotten some of the things that are essential in this world. what is essential indeed is invisible to the eyes, which only the heart can see. the essential idea behind Santa's existence is not the presents he gives to good boys and girls, but rather the ideas of charity, compassion and obedience. behind the big bearded man and the abominable snowman are not the ideas of flying deer and carrot nose, but rather the most essential reason that they and Christmas co-exist - love.

to believe in them is to be human. it is not to embrace the silliness of their stories, but to remember the reason why they were taught to us in the first place. there is still sense in waiting for santa to come, or for the polar express to come chugging in, because it is in believing that we humans shed off the invulnerability our knowledge had imposed on our being.