Santa Claus Is Real
Santa Claus, as commonly believed, is patently ridiculous.
Imagine the thought as portrayed in the USA. A portly man dressed in a bright red suit trimmed with white fur, operating a manufacturing facility on the polar icecap, manned by elves, producing enough toys and other gifts to give to all eligible child believers. He takes off in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer, landing on the roof of the house of each child recipient, slides down the chimney, delivers gifts, snacks out on the cookies and milk left for him by the kids, then slides UP the chimney, boards his sleigh and bounds off thru the air to the next home.
It has been subjected to scientific analysis on an annual basis. A recent installment noted that, given the numbers of Christian households worldwide with children of appropriate age, the capacity of the sleigh would have to be about the same as FOUR Queen Mary’s. The time allotment, given the 24 time zones and presuming the route would follow the rotation of the earth, and allowing for a time slot running from 10 PM to 6 AM, would allow for about 32 hours real time to complete the job. With the number of stops running in the range of hundreds of millions, the only question would be whether Santa would survive the G-forces of acceleration long enough to die from burning up in the atmosphere, which would take place a tiny fraction of a second after his initial takeoff. Of course, since the polar icecap has recently melted, I would hope his facility is supported by pontoons, or the old man will have drowned.
So, the literal legends must be taken for what they are–tradition and folktales perpetuated for the benefit and entertainment of children.
But–is there a reality in the equation?
Let us look at God.
There certainly IS a reality behind God. And yet, much like Santa, a great deal of commonly held beliefs about God are similarly ridiculous. God certainly is not a member of one gender–male OR female–although I will use the masculine pronouns to refer to “him” for the sake of familiarity and simplicity, while acknowledging that the correct pronoun should be “it”. He is not an old man in long flowing robes, wearing a long white beard and carrying a staff. Nor would he correspond to any of the commonly held images from the many world religions which propose them. He does not have a preference to a given religion, including mine. Nor is he prejudiced against any particular religion, including yours.
God is universal. He applies himself equally well to his function thru whatever religion or belief system held by the human who is the focus of his attention. Thru the years, I’ve often advised people that if they cannot find a religion that adequately reflects their beliefs around God, invent your own–call your God anything you’d like, even “The Great God OG”. But know that whatever system you build up around your God will also reflect the benefits you will be able to receive from your God. And when you project enough of yourself into that belief system, you will create a functioning reality within which God will reach you and respond.
Certainly, there is an overriding system in effect which governs all things in spite of our belief systems, and any such self-generated belief structure will ultimately be subject to that system. We cannot override laws like Karma, Universality, Reincarnation, Reflection and the like. But the closer we make our system to that which already exists in the universe, the more powerful it will be. Indeed, some of the elementary writings created to train people in magic or mysticism say that the objective is to learn to act in harmony with the universe.
So, what is there in the legend of Santa which could be used that way?
Santa does encourage children to “Be good”. While most kids have little knowledge or understanding of good Karma, “Being good” isn’t a bad start. Respect of parents (Presuming sane and reasonable parenting) isn’t a bad idea either. Caring about one’s parents and siblings, selflessly and from the heart, is certainly good for the kids. And developing an attitude of selfless, unconditional generosity is a fine thing to cultivate.
As we mature, we learn to understand the function of legend and symbolism in both our religion and legends like that of Santa Claus. We learn that the Red suited man with the sleigh is no more real than the old patriarch with the robes and the long beard. Yet, we do come to understand that the universe is very well organized by a guiding hand, that there is no such thing as coincidence, that there is always a profit to come from unconditional love.
So, is Santa all that silly an idea? Even for so-called adults?
I think not.
Perhaps if we all believed a bit more in Santa, we’d be able to feel a bit better about our relationship with God…and each other.
Merry Christmas! 🙂
Anthony D’Andrea
12/22/10
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