Saturday, November 27, 2010

The Lie

The beginning of the holidays always brings on a slight depression for me. It has its roots all the way back to realizing Santa Claus was a hoax. If I could start over with my children, I would never tell them that outrageous lie. When I told the truth to my son, his wounded words were "You lied to me! You lied to me." He was right. He and his sister deserved far better than a nonexistent man flying around the world leaving "good" kids prizes and games. They were good and deserving from the moment they were born.

When you actually believe in Santa Claus and he comes through for you, it is indeed magical. Never again in all of your life will Christmas provide such magic, but you always wish it would, even when you are old. The lasting disappointment of children whose parents can not provide all the things wished for at Christmas could be easily avoided by simply dropping the lie of Santa Claus in the first place. There is something terribly, terribly wrong with an economy that relies on the annual spending glut of a single holiday to carry it the rest of the year.

As an adult you can wish for the existence of such powerful magic, for transformation, to ward off evil, for healing, and great happiness that lasts from one December through the next. We could restore the world with such magic. Too bad that magic is wasted for a lie. Too bad it is sold to us whether we can afford such a lie or not. Too bad we break our children's heart with that lie.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh yes. Well said. I so loathe the whole concept of 'Black Friday' -- I have long held that any so-called business that is in the red for 11 months of the year is not a business. It too is a lie. Our whole economy seems to be based on this lie. Even now, when millions of people are broke, unemployed or just plain poor, the faux-magical aura of Black Friday 'sales' induces them to pour out into the streets and stores to spend money on mostly useless junk, to keep that Christmas lie afloat. The shame of it.

Anonymous said...

Very funny, ha ha. Now I suppose you're going to suggest that the tooth fairy, Easter bunny, snd evil communists are less than truthful? What about Timothy Leary or Oompa Loompas?

And through it all, we still clap for tinkerbell...

Jackie said...

It is indeed shameful.

Jackie said...

cyberkit, I hate to break the sad news to you, but Timothy Leary was a fiction promoted by the evil communists...

Unknown said...

Well come on, cyberkit -- tooth fairies, santa & the etheah bunny are one thing, but TINKERBELL --!!!!! She is important!