Just the other day, I was chatting over lunch about Santa Claus. The person I was talking to is quite a bit older than I am, and she has a few kids who are grown up now. She was talking specifically about the time her son left a note for Santa and received a handwritten letter in return, and how excited he'd been to show it to everyone they knew, telling them that Santa was real.
Throughout this conversation, it was assumed that, at my age, I no longer believe in Santa Claus. But as I admitted to a friend of mine recently, I actually do. People laugh at me for it, but I don't really care. When I was a kid, there was no question that Santa Claus was real, and as I got older nothing really changed. Santa still brought me and most of my friends gifts on Christmas. When I have kids, I'm going to keep them believing in Santa as long as I can.
It isn't because I think I can get more presents, or because I'm 'childish' - I believe in Santa Claus because I want to. Some people might think I'm delusional, or clinging to the past, or probably just plain weird, and they can think that if they want. It really doesn't bother me. I believe in Santa Claus because I believe in magic. Where's the fun in a world without magic? A world where everything is taken at face value - there's no miracles, no wonder. The old house up on the hill isn't home to a ghost or a witch, the woods don't house talking animals and elves. Everything is exactly what it looks like and no more. Where's the fun in that?
Take it from a writing standpoint, and think about popular books. Take a look at your bookshelf, and I nearly guarantee you'll find at least one book that deals with something magical or fantastical. I'm not denying that realistic books are interesting, because I've read and loved many of them. But imagine, for a moment, all of your favourite books. How many of them wouldn't exist if there was no magic? If humans took everything literally, if there was no capacity for the fantastical or the unbelievable, what would there be? Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and even more wouldn't exist.
When you think about it, aren't books themselves a kind of magic? The fact that words on a page can conjure up such vivid images and stories within a reader's head has a magic of its own. The fact that someone can sit down in front of a blank page and create an entire world, with its own laws and features and cities and everything, is magical. If you ask me, books are evidence that magic exists. Not just books, but music and art and even more too, but books are my personal favourite.
So do I believe in magic? Of course I do. I'm a writer, a reader, and overall a book lover. So do I believe in Santa? Sure, why not? Certainly makes the world a bit more fun and a lot more interesting if magic and Santa Claus exist. I think it's an important lesson to learn, whether you celebrate Christmas or not. Even if you don't believe in magic in the sense of something supernatural or mysterious, if you've ever loved a book, you've experienced magic. If you've ever written or told a story, you've created magic.
If you ask me, magic is real. And everyone's experienced it at some point in their life. And there's still a whole lot more magic out there waiting for us all.
No comments:
Post a Comment