The golden thread (or I learned to read and where did Santa go?)

[The Straight Story]

Through the pain of these last 3 years, deaths - finding my kids - etc, there has been a golden thread weaved into the tapestry of my life.

My little girl. 6 years old now, and she has learned to read a lot of words. She can even write her own sentences.

And someday soon, Santa will come up. She told me today he was the reason we had Christmas, that he lived in the North Pole, and she loved him.

Little does she know Santa is really a broken man, trying hard now to find a job. Posting on a message board in hopes that someone will read his drivel and change their minds on election day.

He is not some magical elf that can bring her toys, he is a daddy watching his little girl grow up too fast - and sometimes, for his own selfish reasons, wishing she would slow the hell down.

He is not busy making toys, he is busy sending emails to his reps in congress about health care, so she can see a Dr if she needs it. He doesn't want cookies, he wants some hard liquor to drown the pain of where this world is now - from global warming to war. His reindeer don't fly, they coast on a donut tire because a new one costs too much.

He isn't busy checking his list of good and bad kids, he is reading press releases from his elected officials who keep supporting the wrong things and supporting a war where other Santa's are busy dying or being injured.

She has learned to read. And soon she will read what I do. And the innocence will be gone.

I just hope she knows Santa tried. And while the Santa she has dreamed of all these years does not exist, there is another - a real Santa - who has tried to give her a gift better than any baby doll she could hope for.

He tried to make her whole life better, not just one day.

Santa cries my sweet, tears of joys for you and what I have - and tears of pain for what we have not been able to give you. A free country, health care, right to work, etc.

Santa won't give up - and I hope you don't either.

The end of Innocence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnOP1WKTiLc

And - there goes my life:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcqQ-wxq3h4

[fenriswolf]

1. the best gifts are ones that you do not need to buy

money has become the end all be all and it shouldnt be

[TomInTib]

2. Every day is just like Christmas.

Keep that in mind, TSS.

Make every day magic. Even if only with just the slightest gesture. Or a kiss.

Every day is its own.

Santa knows that.

For a fact.

It don't take too much.

Just a whole lot of love.



Tom