A Spiritual Place
At this time of year, we are given many opportunities to suspend our disbelief, and when we do so, we are blessed with the gift of hope. The simple act of performing a ritual associated with a tradition based on something ‘unreal’ is an affirmation of a willingness to believe in something greater than our selves, and our own limited visions. Placing a star on the top of a tree gives a nod to spirit and to the story of the angel that brought the shepherds glad tidings of great joy. Even if you don’t really believe, that willingness to ‘act as if’ has great power behind it.
In the 2000 remake of the classic film ‘Miracle on 34th Street,’ pragmatist Dorey Walker hires Kris Kringle as Macy’s Santa for the season. She does so because she wants to ensure sales, declaring Christmas is just for children. (She forgot we’re all children.) The spirit of St. Nicolas found an opening to fulfill his purpose as the protector of children, embodying the spirit of charity and philanthropy.
‘I’m not just a whimsical figure who wears a fancy suit and affects a jolly demeanor,’ Kris tells her. ‘I am a symbol of the human ability to be able to suppress the selfish and hateful tendencies that rule the major part of our lives. If you can’t believe, if you can’t accept anything on faith, then you’re doomed for life, doomed by doubt.’
Dorey has educated her 6-year-old daughter, Susan, about Santa. Even though Dorey thinks ‘it’s just common sense’ that neither of them believe, Dorey sees hope awaken in her daughter’s eyes as she sits on Santa’s lap. Dorey suggests Susan ask Santa for something secret (thinking she’ll prove once and for all that Santa doesn’t exist) and, in doing so, she opens the door of possibility — the possibility that miracles can happen.
Every year, millions of children write their letters to Santa Claus and put them in a mailbox, addressed to the North Pole, never doubting their safe arrival or that their wishes will come true on Christmas morning. The toys Santa brings are great, but it’s the anticipation, the hope that a miracle will happen, that is the true gift of believing in Santa. So, once again, I indulged my need to hold on to my childlike faith and took my kids on a ritual visit to Santa, at Macy’s, in San Francisco. Their marketing theme this year is simply, ‘Believe.’ Coincidence?
I am definitely pro-Santa. Not the symbol of commercialism our society created, but the Santa lawyer Fred Gailey defends in the 1947 version of ‘Miracle on 34th Street,’ by saying, ‘Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to. Don’t you see, it’s not just Kris that’s on trial, it’s everything he stands for. It’s kindness and joy and love and all of the other intangibles. The intangibles are the only things that are worthwhile.’
Hope is another one of those intangibles, and it carries great transformative power. Acting like it was Christmas helped Mame Dennis, in the musical ‘Mame,’ lift her downtrodden spirits. It was only November, but as she and her family brought in the spirit of hope, singing, decorating and dancing around the house, they forgot that they’d lost all of their money in the stock market crash of 1929. In ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ George Bailey’s willingness to follow a bumbling ‘angel in training’ blesses him with the miracle of seeing his life from a new perspective. He realizes that he is the richest man in Bedford Falls because his life is full of the intangibles. In Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol,’ Scrooge, the epitome of greed and the anti-Christmas spirit, is also given the gift of transformation by embracing the Spirit of Christmas. By following Spirit (presented in the form of four ghosts), he recognizes that his fears closed him off from the intangible richness of life. Scrooge, like Dorey, didn’t believe, but Spirit met them where they were in their own spiritual development. In other words, Spirit is able to find a way into our consciousness in a way that we can understand.
‘Bah! Humbug,’ you say? ‘The entirety of this column is based on stories and films, none of them real.’ Try watching or reading some holiday classics and see if that doesn’t soften your heart. Worldwide, societies have created stories tailored to their beliefs and their need for hope at the darkest point of the year. And the stories work. They make people feel good.
If you don’t believe, try it anyway. What have you got to lose? Try asking for the willingness to believe. I’m not asking you to believe in anything specific, just try believing in something joyful and loving. Pray for a holiday miracle, keeping in mind that they don’t always come in the packages we can imagine, and then act as if…
Merry Christmas, Blessed Solstice, Happy Hanukah, Kwanzaa, Deygan, DongZhi and all other occasions to indulge in Hope, Joy, Peace, Love, Kindness and Charity at this time of year.
~ Discuss this article with the author. Email kira@moonshineink.com.
