Tim Whalen wrote:
> Terry, your little friends are wrong. They have been
> affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not
> believe except they see. They think that nothing can be
> which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All
> minds, Terry, whether they be men's or children's, are
> little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an
> ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world
> about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of
> grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
>
> Yes, Terry, there is a Skrenta Claus.
>
> He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion
> exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life
> its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the
> world if there were no Skrenta Claus! It would be as dreary as
> if there were no Terrys. There would be no childlike faith
> then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this
> existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense
> and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the
> world would be extinguished.
>
> Not believe in Skrenta Claus! You might as well not believe in
> faeries. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all
> the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Skrenta Claus, but
> even if you did not see Skrenta Claus coming down, what
> would that prove? Nobody sees Skrenta Claus, but that is no
> sign that there is no Skrenta Claus. The most real things in
> the world are those that neither children nor men can see.
> Did you ever see faeries dancing on the lawn? Of course not,
> but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can
> conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and
> unseeable in the world.
>
> You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the
> noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world
> which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength
> of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart.
> Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that
> curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory
> beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Terry, in all this world there is
> nothing else real and abiding.
>
> No Skrenta Claus?Thank Aternks he lives and lives forever. A
> thousand years from now, Terry, nay 10 times 10,000
> years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of
> childhood.
>
> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!
>
> -- Dogmatix (with apologies to Francis P. Church)