I had coffee with Santa Clause

12 replies
For years I have been in opposition to Christmas. It is often the worst time of the year for many who have lost loved ones, especially children. Or who have suddenly found themselves alone without family around them. Some, I know, have committed suicide over the event and in Australia Lifeline finds itself in the peak period of its year.

Whilst millions enjoy themselves, or pretend to, others are in dire straits. Whilst billions are spent on often useless gifts the poor and the homeless struggle on. The poverty in this world is not helped by such celebrations even if there is a gift or two for them under the tree.

For years while my children were young I bought the tree, worked like a slave to decorate the house, cook for the multitude (its summer here so that's a feat in itself) and did endless days of shopping for those gifts so everyone would be included and not feel left out.

One day something went ding in my brain and I realized what I was doing and what I could well do without. It was not going to happen again. Then another light bulb went on. How can parents teach their children that some wonky old man is going to turn up in the dead of night and give them presents when the parents do and pay for it all. This is not magic its down right deceitful.

The bits of plastic that make up the toys that we pay handsomely for are done with five minutes past Christmas. Often the grandparents and aunties turned up with Santa bags containing replica gifts that the children could no longer get excited about. The Christmas meal was something we could better enjoy in the dead of winter or at some other occasion and we could buy things for people when we saw something they really could use and gave it to them out of the love in our hearts.

That was the philosophy and it came into force the very next year when I weaned my children from all thoughts of this time of the year. A trip overseas saw me take the two eldest to Europe, highly educational, while the youngest, 7 years old, went off to the ski fields with her daddy for a couple of weeks.

Since then my thoughts have turned to the uselessness of the day for others, as mentioned above. In the last few weeks we have had tragedy after tragedy see young children, in one case 2 infants and their father drowned, either lost through accidents or dying of some miserable disease. How do their parents feel at this time.

With all of that said yesterday morning I went shopping to the local Mall to get a few things for myself. There in front of me was the big red throne like chair and the trappings that announced the presence of the mythical Santa Clause but the seat was empty. I gazed over to my right and there sitting in a seat of the open coffee shop was a man with a real long white beard and bushy white hair. He sat tall and erect and I could not help but stare. Wow, he was the spitting image of the creature on whose knee kids would sit to tell him what they wanted for Christmas.

The shop I was heading for was closed, as I was too early, so I wandered over to get a coffee at the bar. I ordered and paid for it and had to pass this gentlemen to get to a table. Instead of passing him I spoke to him.

"Are you the occupier of that chair?" I asked tentatively.

"Yes, that's me," he said. "I am Santa."

Just then the waiter brought the coffee so he invited me to join him.

We chattered on for about an hour as he told me his history. Airing our views to each other, him for Christmas me against, we found we also had a lot in common.

With him it was the love of the children he could touch in some way and the joy on their faces at meeting him. But he also understood my side of the equation. It bothered him a lot too as he often thought about them as well. But then he reminded me of the commercial side of it because he had to wear the false beard and wig even though his own was better. "The shop that hires me insists that I dress in these things" he said.

The whole issue of Christmas is about commerce and that's the bottom line. Its also about greed and what presents one will receive or how well others will think of you because of what you give them. Is this love, I have often asked myself. What happens if you don't give them presents, will they still love you or you them.

There is no apparent thought given for the ones who cannot walk through a center at that time because of the carols and other reminders they face, or of those who are offended by the religious myths behind it. There is no concern about the ones who are alone and possibly handicapped who cannot partake of any pleasure.

My Santa friend, whose name is Ivan, spoke of the obvious depression many wear on their faces as they pass him by. he spoke too of the greed he sees in both parents and children as they line up to see him. Of course the photographer is there ready to charge $30 a shot for a photo.

We agreed that Christmas is something that represents the weakness in humans rather than the strength. Most require such a time to look forward to and to motivate them and so on. The year revolves around it as do holidays and so on.

Then comes the after math. The bills, the debts, the loneliness as the crowds fade, the relatives take off for another year of silence and the effects take their toll on the waste line and the stress that the work has caused.

Some make the deal so big that their houses are decorated all over with lights and moving images with no regard for the environment. They invite everyone to come to their house to see what they have done and they spend a heap to entertain and feed them.

What a time it would be if all the lights were turned off that now display throughout every city on trees competing with each other to be the tallest and best ever. What a time for the environment if those trees were still growing and had not been cut down. What a time for the environment if, instead of spending so much on a few minutes of pleasure, the money had gone to preserving the forests or cleaning up the oceans of plastic, and so on.

Hello, I had coffee with Santa but he too is all confused about Christmas. He too is miffed by why people get caught up in a few weeks of excitement and spend the rest of the year getting over it. Hello.
#clause #coffee #santa
  • Profile picture of the author Mike McBride
    I guess it depends on how you look at it - and you're looking at it in a very Grinch-like fashion.

    If you can't beat 'em, and you don't want to join 'em, then why not just ignore 'em?

    And it's "Claus." And there is such a word as "can't" - as in, you can't be serious.
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    • Profile picture of the author Norma Holt
      Originally Posted by Mike McBride View Post

      I guess it depends on how you look at it - and you're looking at it in a very Grinch-like fashion.

      If you can't beat 'em, and you don't want to join 'em, then why not just ignore 'em?

      And it's "Claus." And there is such a word as "can't" - as in, you can't be serious.
      Don't know what Grinch is supposed to mean. But I am serious. The world is just too caught up with pleasing humans at all costs and all their fanciful notions that are killing us.

      My point is that if people took a good look at the things they do, the debts they rake up for the sake of a little make-believe, and the damage that is occurring to the environment we might just be able to save this planet.

      If not will Santa Clause (Aussie spelling) bring you air to breath, food to eat and water to drink. What is more important in the long run? Is it the smile on children's faces when they get their presents at Christmas or their lives in the future.

      I reared very well adjusted children who are high achievers and not greedy spoiled brats who think that all they have to do is wish for something and it will turn up. That comment is not intended to impart thoughts that everyone who believes in or celebrates Christmas is that way inclined but it surely is one human activity that is very much out of hand. It is also controlled by big business.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mari_Quint
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        • Profile picture of the author Norma Holt
          Originally Posted by Mari_Quint View Post

          A very thought provoking piece. Christmas is so commercialized that the true spirit of giving and happiness is lost in consumerism. It's so true that after the holidays, we end up with more debts and go back to work and slave ourselves more to repay the Christmas spendings.

          With my kids, I always remind them how lucky they are to have a comfortable life as opposed to the kids who are living in poverty elsewhere.
          Mary, you cottoned on to the meaning of this thread and ran with it as it appears to relate more to how women feel than men. Not meaning to be discriminatory there or anything but the work and debt usually fall on the women of the family while the men tend to take it easy and enjoy it. Why is that?

          As to the value of the dollar and the story from attitudes that is what I am talking about. People today are conditioned into becoming millionaires at any cost. They take and take and usually the wealth comes from the environment. Si can you eat the money, drink it or breath it.

          The majority don't seem to realize the state the world is in. As the forests go down so do the oxygen levels, already at 12% rather than the 40% of a few years ago. Check it out on the Internet if you don't believe me. It is declining yearly.

          Fresh water is becoming so scare in many countries that disease and death is the result. Just look at the cholera outbreak in Africa to see what dirty water does. Gold mines are heavy polluters of rivers and New Guinea people are dying from the heavy metals in their waterways but it is covered over. Oceans are rising and little Island countries are becoming awash with sea water. Some around Australia are trying to get rights to move here. The President of the Maldives is trying to buy thousands of acres in any country around them that will sell it to him so the whole population of 30,000 can move there.

          Its only a matter of time before the impact hits. If you have seen anything on the state of the oceans you would know that many species of animals are dying because of plastic. One report showed a reporter and environmentalist on a Hawaiian Beach digging through a meter of plastic to reach the sand. The Galopogus Islands are surrounded by plastic and it is affecting land animals, such as the giant tortoises that are dying because they either eat it or get it caught around their necks choking them slowly to death.

          Isn't it better to educate children into this kind of reality and not into wishful thinking that has taken so many of their parents down a path of deceit. I would rather see the joy on their faces when they can enjoy a long and decent life not one full of worry about how they can become millionaire while they damn everyone and everything in their path.

          Norma
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  • Profile picture of the author attitudes
    I am now 51 but when I was 25, I was broke and had been in and out of work for 4 years, virtually unemployed for most of those years

    I met an old man one day who asked a question which changed the whole course of my life --in fact his question ---and the answer caused me to become a millionaire just 18 months later


    The question he asked me was

    "WHAT IS THE VALUE OF A ONE DOLLAR?
    "

    I gave the typical answer ----One Dollar

    The old man then said if that's all I see, just the numerical value
    then I would chase dollar coins, for the rest of my life, he then informed

    "THE WAY I VIEW MONEY WILL EITHER FREE ME OR ENSLAVE ME"

    He then proceeded to enlighten me, that the true value of a dollar coin is
    its "CREATIVE VALUE"

    He
    then asked to double the dollar coin, I replied two, he then said double 2, I said 4 and we continued 21 times
    and then came to
    One Million dollars -----Now the next question completely changed my thinking about money for the rest of my life

    Here is the question

    Is success and wealth, the factor of hard work, hard saving
    over a period of time? or is simply

    "One Good Idea or project, that you repeat 21 times"
    So it's not "HOW HARD YOU WORK ---But HOW HARD YOU THINK"

    So I realized then and there that success was simply one good Idea and if I could double just one dollar and make it two then that's it all I had to do was reapeat the same simple process "21 times"
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  • Profile picture of the author attitudes
    Another life changing question

    "CAN WE PREDICT A FUTURE EVENT
    WITH A 100% PREDICTABLE OUTCOME"


    Most people say no!

    The true answer is "Absolutely "YES"
    Here is an example---- Here Ye!! Here Ye!!

    "THE COIN WILL GO UP AND THE COIN WILL GO DOWN"

    Toss the coin up ----up it goes
    then watch it come down

    So yes you can predict a future event because of

    "GOD'S UNIVERSAL LAWS"

    Such as the law Of Thrust----and the law of Gravity
    The beauty of God's laws is they all have a 100% predictable outcome
    and are changeless and completely reliable

    So the point is, if we live our lives using Gods Universal laws --then we will be more predictable and we will know the outcome in advance

    stay tuned as I begin to share some of these laws




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  • Profile picture of the author John Willer
    interesting thread
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  • Profile picture of the author Norma Holt
    Originally Posted by jrise View Post

    And I had coffee with Obama only he doesn't have a beard!
    Yes, but what an inspiring story he could tell. No fiction there.

    Norma
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  • Profile picture of the author borilbogoev
    Yeah, Christmas time is so inspiring... But you need something to drive your motivation during the course of the entire next year, though!
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    • Profile picture of the author Norma Holt
      Originally Posted by borilbogoev View Post

      Yeah, Christmas time is so inspiring... But you need something to drive your motivation during the course of the entire next year, though!
      Is it really inspiring or a distraction from the daily grind? When I am focused on something, like IM for example, I resent things that turn my thoughts off and leave a gap that has to be filled in order to get back into it. Isn't that what Christmas does to most people.

      In Australia, as I mentioned, it is very hot at this time of the year so people take holidays and head off usually to the beaches and so forth. It is very relaxing to spend the time lolling around with families and doing what people do in this situation.

      I have never spent winter in the Northern Hemisphere so I can only imagine that it is a time to forget about the cold and perhaps the distraction from the daily grind is, therefore, more important than where I live.

      What do others think about that?

      Norma
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  • Profile picture of the author jn.rounak
    i have a coffee with bush,,, yeh that's real time ;D
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  • Profile picture of the author Norma Holt
    Yesterday, Sunday, I visited my little grand-children, 3 and 2 years of age. The youngest is 2 on Wednesday and he loved his present from Nanna and the cake and candles etc. Then I went back to my car to get something.

    "What do you have to get?" My daughter was very persistent. "What do you have in the car?"

    "Stop being so curious." I responded. You'll see.

    Well, the truth is that on Saturday I spotted a little foam couch that I just knew these children would love. When I brought it into the family room they pounced. It was simply made to order. They jumped all over it and as it opens out into a bed they lay down side by side and pretended to sleep for about 2 seconds before bouncing back and sitting on it as a couch.

    The excitement and thrills they experienced was something to behold. This was to be their final present from me before Christmas as I don't believe in presents under the tree from some bearded stranger.

    My grandchildren had the time of their lives on something they know came from their Nanna. There were no other presents to distract them from it, except for the ones the little one received for his birthday.

    We all had a wonderful time watching the antics and the joy. That's what giving is about. When you see something that you know someone will love and you give it from your heart its worth a million dollars.

    God bless

    norma
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