The Truth About Santa Claus
Like many children, I grew up believing in Santa Claus. I delighted in the story and the mystery of the man in the red suit who could visit everyone’s home in the course of one wintery evening.
I liked living with the illusion. Even when my friends told me otherwise, even when the evidence was all around me in the form of multiple men in red suits, cards signed with a familiar signature, the impossibility of the story. I held on to the innocent belief as long as I could.
“Taking the fall” and discovering, at the age of six, that, in reality, there was no Santa Claus was one of the most difficult realizations to acknowledge and accept. I did not want to know the Truth!
The grief and sadness I felt was immense. The ending of some dream, some hope, some hanging on to childhood illusions of fantasy. If there was no Santa Clause what else did that mean about this world? I didn’t really want to know. I liked my fantasy world. Something about the illusion felt safe. Reality did not feel safe.
As an adult I have taken that same “fall” many times as I have learned that what I thought was real and true was not at all real or true. I have discovered again and again that I have been lying to myself. Sometimes the falling away of an illusion is easy and natural but sometimes it has not been so easy. I have clung to many illusions (false security blankets) as long as I could. I have cried and felt the grief of losing dreams, what I had hoped would be real. Being open to the Truth has required letting go of hope and dreams that “someday maybe ……”
Recently a friend sent me the following quote, which seemed to describe my experience perfectly. “The truth will set you free. But first it will make you miserable” (see below).
Once I am willing to see my story for what it is the Truth does set me free in a way that cannot be explained. It is similar to reading the “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” letter (http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/). Once I see the illusion for what it is, this sweet letter makes sense and the gifts are far greater than any illusion of safety. Until I am willing to see the illusion for what it is I cannot experience the gifts of Truth.
The questions I continue to sit in are, “What Truth am I not yet willing to open up to? What lie am I using as a false security blanket? What dream or hope for someday- maybe do I cling to?” If it serves, ask yourself those questions and see what comes to you. I would love to hear from you.
*The quote above was attributed to The Talmud, however, a Google search says it came from president James Garfield.