Sunday, December 23, 2012

 Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus - By Skip Parker


This blog was written in response to a letter written to Skip Parker just before Christmas, 2011. 


"DEAR Skip:
 Some people are saying some crazy      

things and
it's really testing my faith. Please
tell me the
truth;
is there a Santa Claus?
"VIRGINIA O'HANLON - "Lombard, Illinois."

VIRGINIA, I'm afraid that you,

like so many of
us have been affected by the
skepticism of a
skeptical age. Sadly so many
of us believe
only in what we can see.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa

Claus. He exists
as certainly as love and generosity
exist; He
exists in the kindness of strangers
and the      
unexpected gifts that life joyfully
drops in our
laps each day.  Take for instance
the maniacal
driver who honks furiously and
flips us the finger
for driving too slowly on a snow
covered highway. 
As you pass him moments later while
his car sits
facing the wrong way in a ditch, up      
to his
windshield in snow, tell me there's
no Santa Claus.  How about the rude
and impatient shopper who cuts
in front of you in line only to find himself
stuck behind Estelle Getty with a
change purse full of expired coupons,
who then attempts to pay with a check from
the first national bank of the confederate
union... while a new checkout aisle
magically opens up for you.  He lives Virgina,
 He lives.  Did you ever open your six piece
McNuggets and find that inside there were seven? 
Santa Claus: 
Alive and Well.How about when the obnoxious
co-worker gets the promotion that you were
hoping for and two months later they eliminate
the position and he's gone. What's that? 
I think I hear Santa Claus!
Remember the pretty cheerleader in high
school that wouldn't give you the time of day? 
 You run in to her at Wal Mart and she's      
gained roughly two hundred pounds and in twenty
years, has gone from homecoming queen...
to homecoming float?
Jingle Jingle! I believe that’s Kris Kringle!

 Though we may not actually see Santa Claus,

it is no sign that he isn't there. The most
real things in the world are those that neither
children nor men can see. Like the boogey man,
the smart aleck youngster that supposedly told
Bozo to "cram it" and the kid who lost an eye
from someone shooting rubber bands.
Santa Claus lives and he lives forever.
As sure
as the bully who makes fun of the sickly      
geek for throwing up in class...then ends up
puking himself.  He lives indeed. A thousand
years from now, he will continue to make glad
the heart of childhood and
the child in us all.