08/11/03 01:05:09
>>407の続きです
④
As a child you must have wondered, "Is there a Santa Claus?" About 100 years ago,
an eight-year-old girl named Virginia asked the same question in a letter sent to the
New York Sun. In answer to the little girl's question, Francis Church, a newspaper editor,
wrote an article in the Sun.
"Yes. Virginia,there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and
devotion exist.........
"Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is not a sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most
real things in the world are those neither children nor adults can see. Did you ever see
fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not,but that's not proof that they are not there..........
"No Santa Claus? Thank God he lives, and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia,
no,ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make the hearts of children glad."
Church's message was that the most important things in life cannot be seen with our eyes.
We cannot see love,but it exists. We cannot see kindness, but people smile when it is shown.
Although the images of Santa Claus have changed through history and through different cultures,
what Santa Claus symbolizes has remained the same. It is the spirit of goodwill to others.
Anyone with that spirit can be a true Santa Claus.
よろしくお願いします。m(_ _)m