A visit from Santa!

Do stories need to be factual? It is a discussion that I occasionally have with some folks. If you read Alice in Wonderland to a 4-year-old, do you give the disclaimer that it is just a story? "Listen up kiddo, this world only exists in the dream of Alice. Do not get fooled by imagining that there is a world inhabited by talking rabbits and cats". Don't talk to me if you are this kind of (wo)man of facts.

Few of us have a problem in telling children the stories of Santa Claus and Tooth fairies. I wonder why? For this Christmas, we set up a tiny tree in the living room and left a cup of milk and a cookie for Santa. Oh, and a small carrot for Rudolf the reindeer. T has asked a month in advance for a yo-yo as Christmas gift from Santa. She also reminded him (around 15 times) by calling his personal hotline # 951-262-3062, on December 24th. So, it would be very rude and unkind of Santa if he had ignored her request. She woke up next day morning and ran with excitement to the tree and found that milk and cookie were gone and carrot was half eaten. Santa indeed left her, two (!) yo-yo and another special gift, for listening to her parents. This is factually correct: our words indeed fell as soundbites on her ears, but only one-third of it was manifested as actions in accordance with those "commands". So much for listening! I testified hearing sound of someone walking in the living room. As a full declaimer, after starting the meditation practice, I some time practice "mindful walking", which involve paying attention to your movements, sounds of your own steps etc. etc.... 

A bonus of Santa's generosity was that, for a few days after Christmas, whenever T showed reluctance to eat her food and do what we ask her to do (next ideal sequence of events that should happen after "listening"), I threatened about calling up Santa to report the lack of obedience so that he would take one more trip from North pole to take back the gifts. Which worked effectively (for first few times).

I intend to invite Mr. Claus and several such luminaries to visit T in the future too. I will be ordering red carpets for Tooth fairies in a couple of years. I am not planning to kill beautiful stories with some dry facts. Let children play in the idealized world as much as they can. Maybe it would inspire some of them to create such lands for all of us to live one day, who knows.