Of the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and Superman!
When we were a young child, we always eagerly awaited the arrival of the Easter Bunny with all of his goodies contained in that wonderful Easter basket. There were chocolate eggs and chocolate bunnies, whether hollow or not, and we probably had a sugar high for days afterward. We loved the ones that weren’t hollow best!
We are not sure, however, the Easter Bunny was probably the first of our childhood figures that we gave up believing in. Santa Claus stayed with us for awhile even though we opened our presents on Christmas Eve throughout our childhood and even on into adulthood until we married our second wife and acquired small children again. We were able to relive the miracle of childhood beliefs through our step son and step daughter even though the little girl became skeptical of the jolly old elf fairly early on in her life. We knew that Santa lived at the North Pole and we have never been able to reconcile until recently how he and Superman could both have homes there. We had seen pictures in the comics of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude where he originated from and would occasionally return to confront issues that troubled him. And we remember the tragedies surrounding George Reeves and Christopher Reeve after they played the part of Superman on television and in the movies.
As we grew older, we began to see Santa depicted as old and having arthritis and back trouble from that load that he was forced to carry on that endless Christmas Eve in which he delivered to so many who awaited him with an also endless supply of cookies and milk. Were that many cookies and milk really good for the old elf?
We were raised in a Southern Baptist church where they did not celebrate the season of Lent. We really knew nothing about it to speak of until in our fifties when a miracle occurred in our life that brought us much closer to God than we had ever been before. The Easter Bunny and Santa and Superman had long ago receded into our past but our relationship with our God has only grown immensely over the past five to six years or so. It is interesting really what happens to a person’s faith life over their lifetime. Some people have faith in nothing but themselves, while others broaden that out to include others that they feel that they can trust.
Do atheists ever believe in Santa, even as a child?
Some people still trust in Santa Claus and, after seeing the film The Polar Express, I might be one of them who, deep inside, still believes in a being who only gives and never asks for anything in return. The Polar Express is about a group of children and one particular young boy who has never had much of anything to believe in during his young life, who take a trip to the North pole aboard a magic train to meet Santa Claus. Much later in his life, the man who comes from that boyhood still believes in Santa, even though most all of his friends have lost the magic that comes from deep inside.
They say that one should always try to keep in touch with the child inside of oneself and we have always tried to do that in our own way. As we have discussed in this column before, our loving and believing parents always took us to church as a child and instilled in us the belief system that has carried us through some pretty harrowing situations throughout our life.
Sometimes belief is the only thing that a person has left to them! We think of all of those held captive in North Vietnamese prisons during the Vietnam War!
A person can be stripped of all of their worldly possessions and their belief can continue to deepen and to constantly grow. As we think about the slaves in the anti bellum South of the United States, they had nothing really to lean on except the belief that one day they would leave this life and find a place that would leave them free of their shackles and chains. It was the one thing that could not be taken away from them. It was the one thing that they truly owned.
As we leave this season of Lent, the forty days before the resurrection of the Christ, we think back on a life that was devoid of any worldly possessions at all. A life spent in complete love for anyone who would ask for it and a life spend in complete giving that seemed never to come to an end. It has not come to an end even today, two thousand years after. It is good that we can leave our childhood fantasies behind and it is also good that we can find a belief system to replace those fantasies with that continues to intrigue and challenge us to be the very best that we can be despite all that can be taken from us or thrown at us.
It is simply good to be able to believe!
Happy Easter!
IOVHO,
Regards,
Joe
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