There is no sanity clause!
Posted on 12/11/2006 1:48:12 PM PST by ZULU
Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.
"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' "Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
"VIRGINIA O'HANLON. "115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measure by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest man that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank GOD! He lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
What would it fetch?
There is no sanity clause!
yea right (its a joke )
I like Santa: but when he goes "ho, ho, ho" I wonder which chick he is talking about.
It's true that I was a child then, but nothing I have learned since has convinced me I should do what my parents did. Quite the opposite. My immature reaction has blossomed into full-blown rebellion against dishonesty in all matters.
All three of them.
The real tragedy is that you don't appear to have the perspective and good grace your mother had.
My mother said I was free to not believe in Santa whenever I wanted to stop receiving presents. I still believe... In Corin. :~)
If you believe in Santa, you don't need no stinkin' clause.
Santa knows when you've been practicing your spelling."
Now who doesn't like a nitpicker? [Santa]
Use the power of Santa responsibly :~)
For that time, in those circumstances, with everyone going wacko over Santa, my mother was right. She always tried very hard to fit into American culture and to give her children a proper American life as she saw it.
Of course she was right. :~) Now you're making progress!
You are so freakin condescending I can't believe it! (Just being honest again.) >:)
Honesty is not always the best policy :~)
I still believe and always will.
My parents "didn't do" Santa with us. They said they wanted us to focus on giving presents, not recieving them, and enough of us were skeptics about things I'm not sure how long it would have worked anyway. I don't feel like I miss anything. Though I wonder if cutting out Santa was just a way to avoid needing two sets of presents for seven children :-)
My littlest brother knows Santa is real though. Santa comes to his school in a helicopter every year. Of course, Santa always gives out pants. No matter how much he tells us Santa will bring toys, he always ends up with pants. It's sort of funny though. He has mental retardation and can't always tell the difference between fantasy and reality, and he knows that the possibility of someone giving out toys is nothing to be skeptical about!
Me, I think Santa's creepy. He's got a list of every kid and where they live, he's watching, he has the ability to be anywhere in the world in one night, he's got that whole Elf exploitation thing going, to say nothing of the flying getaway vehicle...
They said they wanted us to focus on giving presents, not receiving them
Now that we're older we all write from Santa on most of the presents, because it's about giving presents, not getting 'credit' for them. :~)
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