My younger audience should stop reading now
Actually, scratch that. Keep reading, kids.
I've had an extremely blessed childhood. The hardships of my life, in light of eternity and in the struggles of the world, are nothing. I realize this. So what i'm about to do is not whining or complaining, i think. And if i am, don't worry, i'll disagree with myself a little further down.
I find this disturbing: http://www.santamail.org/
It has all the elements that should bother us.
Not only is it abhorrently commercialized (lights dancing around $9.95? countdown clock? really?) but it supports and propagates a lie. Do we think our children incapable of learning any virtuous behavior without a mystical reward system? I have spent years reversing my conceived atmosphere of this coming time. What have i prepared for? What coming have i longed each year to see? Santa's. When i (somewhat angrily, i might add) expressed my distress and disappointment to my parents (why couldn't they be forward? why couldn't i feel gratitude towards them and not some piece of fiction? why did my love go off wasted, not received?) they were a bit indignant. Their excuse was that they tried to create a sense of magic for my childhood. You want magic? You want miraculous? You want special? Look. Seek. You can find it, but it isn't going to arrive post-makred "North Pole" embossed on heirloom-quality acid-free linen paper.
But maybe i'm wrong. Maybe it takes the destruction of a fiction to throw a clearer light on the reality. In fact, i needed to overthrow it. Because in the effort made to take a unique journey, from wherever i am now to wherever that Star comes to rest, i'll find something. And when i arrive, i'll find something better. And now that i've prepared for the past eighteen years, i will (by Grace) make that pilgrimage every year.
I've had an extremely blessed childhood. The hardships of my life, in light of eternity and in the struggles of the world, are nothing. I realize this. So what i'm about to do is not whining or complaining, i think. And if i am, don't worry, i'll disagree with myself a little further down.
I find this disturbing: http://www.santamail.org/
It has all the elements that should bother us.
Not only is it abhorrently commercialized (lights dancing around $9.95? countdown clock? really?) but it supports and propagates a lie. Do we think our children incapable of learning any virtuous behavior without a mystical reward system? I have spent years reversing my conceived atmosphere of this coming time. What have i prepared for? What coming have i longed each year to see? Santa's. When i (somewhat angrily, i might add) expressed my distress and disappointment to my parents (why couldn't they be forward? why couldn't i feel gratitude towards them and not some piece of fiction? why did my love go off wasted, not received?) they were a bit indignant. Their excuse was that they tried to create a sense of magic for my childhood. You want magic? You want miraculous? You want special? Look. Seek. You can find it, but it isn't going to arrive post-makred "North Pole" embossed on heirloom-quality acid-free linen paper.
But maybe i'm wrong. Maybe it takes the destruction of a fiction to throw a clearer light on the reality. In fact, i needed to overthrow it. Because in the effort made to take a unique journey, from wherever i am now to wherever that Star comes to rest, i'll find something. And when i arrive, i'll find something better. And now that i've prepared for the past eighteen years, i will (by Grace) make that pilgrimage every year.