What is it about some parents that they want to tell the truth to their children ALL the time? And sometimes one doesn’t even know if things are true or not. Could we see a nano [ cell component] with the naked eye? Could we see God? Do we know He/She exists? Its all a matter of belief. My little kid, came to me troubled. Her friend had told her that Santa Claus had died a long time ago and parents lied while buying the gifts for Santa. She sat hunched over, her little face worried, her eyes big but not so trusting, looking up through her eyebrows, wanting to believe but not knowing if she could. So I told her that it was a matter of belief. Maybe he didn’t visit her friend ‘cos she didn’t believe. Her sister had got gifts till she was 10 when Santa’s mandate ran out. I listed them- a Big Princess doll, an umbrella etc. So would she as long as she believed. St Nick did die , but he was sent back to give kids gifts from the North Pole. She went, happy. My husband & I came up with this theory that little kids need wish fulfillment and belief in magic( witness the popularity of Harry Potter- my kid wanted to marry him!!!). B’days are caught up with clothes and party expenses so Christmas seemed the perfect time to make a dream come true.
Long years ago, two children photographed fairies in the garden. I wish the image had remained unexplained instead of its being exposed as a fraud- paper fairies suspended from wires! Children need dreams of many kinds so they remember to dream when they go up. If Harry hadn’t believed in his early dreams which were all he had of his history, if Gandhi hadn’t dreamt, if Martin Luther King did not have a dream, where would we be?
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