My friend Aaron sent me his thoughts on Santa Claus. I think it is in response to something I posted about my father and Santa Claus. I guess it is all about how far you take Santa Claus. If you play it up too much it could be cruel.
Now that it is "post holiday", specifically Christmas, I have something that has bothered me for a while. It has to do with capitalism, but more about what's right and wrong with Christmas. I feel that the whole gift giving phenomenon is all cute and nice, and it does give you a good feeling to give somebody a gift. But this day is about Jesus' birth. I am sick of the whole mass media marketing machine shoving Christmas down our throats like it's mandatory to get people gifts. For me, It all started with Santa Clause. I really did believe in Santa Clause. I remember my cousins telling me that I just missed Santa darting across the sky with his reindeer and sleigh. It was at my grand mom's house, and they were the first ones out the door, so they tricked me into believing that he flew over head and I missed it all. I have a problem with Santa because parents and teachers and uncles and relatives are always chiding their children for lying. But what do they do? they take advantage of youth and naivety by telling you about some fake man, who may, or may not have ever existed, and they play the old "carrot and stick" with you about being good and getting presents. The whole thing about chimney crawling and leaving milk and cookies, and Rudolph. It's America's biggest lie. Well, besides Iran Contra and "I did not have sexual relations with that woman". All I'm saying I'm saying is "don't tell your children to be honest and never tell a lie, and then lie to them about Santa Clause and not expect them to hold it against you". That's on par with finding out that my mom and dad stole cable television by having my uncle hook up a "hot Box" onto our television when I was a kid. I have to admit that it was nice to try and watch the Playboy Channel (even though it never came in) and to see constant reruns of Cheech and Chong, but it was bad parenting. That's the point of my life when I realized that; A) Santa doesn't exist, he's just a made up lie that's cute and funny and parents get to hold it over your head until you figure out that it's them. B)My parents are stealing cable television, on top of lying about Santa Clause. That's borderline criminal behavior. I am scarred for life.
My friend Aaron sent me an e-mail message. I felt that I had to post part of the message here. It says something that I have been trying to get out. I wish that I could have said some of these things. I really understand the underlying idea that Aaron is writing about. I hope you enjoy his message:
I have some senseless banter of my own. I have come to the realization that I'm almost 30 and I still don't know dick about anything important. I generally know some mindless information about sports, but not enough to get into a history of sports conversation. I know some things about computers, but not enough to enable me to pass my stupid A+ OS test. I know some things about women, but not enough to be able to avoid draining relationships with nice girls that are the wrong fit for me. The sad thing is, I don't even have a strong grasp on what I like or dislike, I just find out at the last moment when things in life reach critical mass, "hey, I hate this...what the hell am I doing this for?" At that point, it's usually too late to get out of something without looking like a complete ass anyway.
I know enough about people to manipulate them if I feel that they are of weaker character than I am. I am not of strong enough character to avoid or repress the people out there who build their lives out of manipulating people. I'm not even a good liar. You once told me that I am an angry young man, but I'm not in an important enough position in life that anybody would really care. Like, "why is HE angry, Oh well, who cares. He's not important anyway" I thought that observation was funny.
