
今年のプレゼントはダッシュバード1号。去年は「ピアノ」とのリクエストで
これでした(^^ゞ
「サンタクロース来るかなぁ~」と心配していまつ。
誰から聞いたのでしょーか。
早くもう少し大きくなって「サンタはいるの?」って質問して欲しいです。
「サンタはいるよ。世の中に、人へのおもいやり・まごころが有るのと同じように、サンタクロースもいるんだよ。」と答えたいだけですが(^^ゞ
これ、100年前(1897年)の有名なエピソードなんです。
8歳のバージニアちゃんが、「友達からサンタなんていないって言われたけど、ほんとにいないの?」とお父さんに聞いたそうな。
お父さんは「もしニューヨーク・サン(新聞)に、いないって書いて有ればいないんだろうな」と答えたそうな。
そこでバージニアちゃんが新聞社にハガキで問い合わせをしたら、紙上の社説で返事が掲載されました。
そのお返事を原文にて(^^ゞ
翻訳を間違えてるかもしれないので。
Virginia, 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, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's are little. In this great universe of our 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 truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa 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 Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existance. We should have no enjoyment, except in sence and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see faries 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, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now he will continue to make glad the hearts of childhood.
The NewYork Sun Sept 21, 1897
Posted at 2005/12/24 17:20:32 | |
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