Putting Away Childish Things (1 Cor 13:11)

No Virginia there is no Santa Clause. Santa is a myth, like a story we all act out for fun. Nobody lied to you. We just gave you a part in the story because we love you and we don't want you to be left out.

No Virginia, the Universe was not cobbled together in Santa's workshop or anybody else's workshop.

No there is no Old Man in the Sky who will reward good people and get even  for you for the bad stuff people to do you. Terrible things happen to good people and terrible people get rich and famous. Life is not a game. It doesn't come out even.

No, Virginia there is nobody listening to your private thoughts, or tinkering with the laws of Physics to make your wishes come true.

Sorry Virginia, but Grandpa and your cat Puffy are dead, like the chicken you had for dinner. Gone. But they both loved you very much. Remember that. Hold on to that.

No, Virginia God didn't write you a book to tell you what to do. God is like Santa. He's a character in a book or a character on TV but characters don't write a books do they? You will meet many people who have forgotten or never knew that God is like Santa. You will also meet many people who never heard of Santa but seem to be OK. It's the same thing with God. He's made up like Spider Man. Lots of folks never heard of him and they do OK. Lots of folks learn about God the way you learned about Santa. They do OK too.

Lots of folks have lots of ideas about how you should behave. Don't forget what Grandpa told you. Listen to the smart folks around you. Books can help you decide. Read all you can. But remember every word was written by a person like you. Even as a child, you knew many things the old folks never knew. It's up to you to decide who is truthful, who has your best interests at heart, who knows what they are talking abut. Most of all it's up to you yourself to decide. You need to know how to find the truth and tell the truth yourself. It is not easy, but you need to try.

You need to be a grown up now.

Note to reader: Jesus lived 1,500 years before anybody started to make a clear distinction between myth and reality. We now know the difference. The Pope knows and the good Theological schools teach appreciation of myth. It's a settled matter. Oddly, the current confusion is not so much a confusion over what is "real", but confusion over the role and value of myth. Myths are a good thing, an essential thing. I can remember the very moment I discovered the difference, that the stories I was reading were not true. It is a moment that has not come to many of us but to some, even less fortunate, all love of myth has been lost. We absolutely cannot live without myth, but this is a topic for a later time ...