Before you read this, know I believe in St. Nick.
Serenity,
Muppets, Matrix, Don’t Stop Believing, Believe in a little thing called Love, I
Believe I can Fly. Belief. Listen for that word. Daily you'll hear the media preaching it to us and our children: Believe. Is it just an American Ideal?
It is a known fact that the best
way to learn is through simulation. Play is simulation, just ask the sparring
cub, the little girl playing house or the little boy with the building blocks.
Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny,
Halloween are
these merely our way to teach children to believe in God, or do we teach them to believe in lies? Why should we teach them to believe in something that shouldn’t exist?
Why don’t we just tell them the reality, teach them to accept the world for
what it is? Why not go to the North Pole and kill the fat guy right now?
Because a child who believes in
something as obscure as Santa Claus, will believe in obscure clichés like Love,
Hope, Justice, Equality and Freedom. The child who believes in fairies and
werewolves will know how to believe his presence on Earth is worth living,
even when all thoughts say otherwise.
Look at Monarch Kings and Queens
and Grecian heroes and religions. Why were they important? They were a symbol for people to believe in. Look at our own symbol. When all hope was lost, we believed and our flag was still there. Truly, there is
something very powerful about belief, and absolutely worth teaching to our
children.
In the Hogfather, Death sums it up.
Merry Christmas.
