Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!

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Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!

Editorial: Don DeForge, VMD
26Dec2013

Waiting for Santa
Reprinted from Opinion: New Haven Register 24Dec2013
Editorial

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial September 21, 1897.

History's most printed newspaper editorial.....credited to Francis Pharcellus Church.

It begins:

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, newspaper, it's so."
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
Signed,
Virginia O'Hanlon-115 West Ninety-Fifth Street-September, 1897

RESPONSE:
"Virginia, your little friends are wrong.  They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.  They do not believe what they cannot 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 measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!  He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist; and you know that they abound and give to your life it's highest beauty and joy.  Alas! How dreary the world would be if there was no Santa Claus.  It would be as dreary as is there were no VIRGINIA'S!  

There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, and no romance to make tolerable this existence.  We would have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight.  The eternal light with 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 not a sign 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 may 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 men that ever lived, could tear apart.  Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, and romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond.

Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding!

No Santa Claus!  Thank God; Santa lives and he will live forever!  A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

Animal Doc AM Multi-Media, Dr. Don DeForge, wants all children to know that Santa Claus is quite real.  116 years have passed since Virginia wrote the editors of the Sun newspaper to find out if Santa was real.  He is more real now than he has ever been. 

Santa is found in music, in flowers, in fall leaves dropping from the tree limbs; in snowflakes touching our noses as they drift to the ground; and in random acts of kindness.  
Santa does not want us to wrap up Christmas till next December 25th.  He wants each and every one of us to carry his message of love within ourselves 365 days a year and share it with others freely.  

Yes Virginia, Michael, Mary, Thomas, Jill, Tori, Courtney, TJ, Heidi, Noah, Dylan, Will, Mckaylee, Christopher, Ian, Clinton, Emma....and all children of the world: THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS.  Every time we give of ourselves, Santa Claus is deep inside pushing us to give more.  As we close the door on Christmas 2013, we open the door that allows Santa Claus to be real each and every day of our lives.  Never stop believing in Santa Claus and help others to find him in their hearts.  No one can prove that Santa is not real.....you can show others that Santa Claus is here and will always be here.

Dr. Don DeForge
26December2013
Merry Christmas 

Comments on this blog can be addressed to:
DoctorDeForge@yahoo.com




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