Glass is 1/2 Full…

LiveJournal Tags: Christmas

                 

Newsman Francis Pharcellus Church wrote The Sun's response to Virginia.

Click here to see
the newspaper clipping

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Every once in a while I have to take a break from being a pessimist and flip to the other side, if only for a few minutes…  Just a little part of checks & balances, for if you don’t take a look at the other side once in while, you will be totally consumed by the other, lost in the dark abyss, for ever more…  This for me is one of those ‘walks in the sunlight with rose colored glasses!

This article in a letter to the editor and response to same were written and first published over 113 years ago now!  In a time that was far simpler then most of us could ever comprehend.

In any case I hope that you enjoy reading this as much as I do! Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Many sides to the same coin

Web browsers, anti-virus protection, operating systems, social platforms or just researching for a new camera.  When researching you read articles, many of which have a bias one way or another to start with, then you have the comments from readers, reviews from purchasers for particular products.  I’m quite sure that we’ve all heard the phrase “there are two sides to every coin”; it would appear in todays world there are a minimum of 4 sides to every coin!  I’ve broken this down to 5 groups of commenters and reviewers in general.  The ‘totally erroneous’; “Superman would kick Batman’s ass”, The ‘hate anything and everything’; “Microsoft sucks, they’ve never made anything worth while”,  ‘Love anything & everything’;”Oh Linux is the only thing I’d ever use, they walk on water” even if the particular product, truly does suck!, ‘Tin hat brigade’;”It’s a government conspiracy to invade our privacy in order track every waking move of every citizen”, then you have the people that have actually used and thought out their comments & reviews, weigh out the pros and cons, given a useful opinion or review of the platform or product!  When reading comments/review one must first wade through the tons of groups 1-4 in order to get the ‘few’ group 5 views.

The ones that irk me the most are those who feel compelled to comment, when in fact, they’ve not even seen, much less tried the platform/product?  If you’ve not even seen/used then, keep your opinions to yourself!  Over the years I’ve tried many things, some were great, many worthless.  But before I try it prior to making a comment, good or bad!  Remember the old cliché “Never put all your eggs in one basket”?  As fast as things come and go these days, I use more than one platform/vendor for the same tasks.  The simple fact being, from experience if you rely completely on one vendor/platform exclusively your going to get burned sooner rather than later.  How many times have you used or found something you like, just to have it be “discontinued” or “no longer supported” a few months down the line?

The best bet is use what “you” like and what you feel comfortable using regardless of what someone else’s skewed opinion may be.  Keep in mind that “Opinions are like A**holes, everyone has one, most of them STINK!  Keep your options open and think before you speak!  If your compelled to make a comment or write a product review, first and foremost…try it for at least 30 days (longer would be better in most cases) then and only then make an intelligent and useful comment/review!

Election Day Blues

The first Tuesday of November, election day!  After months of TV ad bombardment, phone calls, emails, snail mail not to mention the thousands of posters, signs and radio ads it all comes down to a few hours today then all will be quiet once again for two years.  Well from my pov it can’t be over and done with soon enough.  Months of mud slinging, back stabbing, half-truths, no truths and just plain old lies and facts twisted to say what ever clouded point the politicos are trying to get across.   Personally the only thing the whole process does is give me a large headache and leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.  There is so much ‘crap’ pushed out and floating about, that even if I were to waste my time to go out and vote, which I’m not!  I have no idea who I would vote for?  How horrible you say, it’s your right to go out and cast your vote!  Well yes, but it is also just as much my right to not go out and vote as well.  Why is that you may ask? Well the short and simple fact is I don’ t believe that it really matters who or which group of snake oil salesmen you put in office, the end game will be the same.  Am I cynical?  Yes I am, more of a glass half empty rather then half full type of person.  The solution is simple or at least it should be…instead of all of the mud slinging, so and so did this or said this.  How about if your incumbent then state your track record over the past few years, if there’s nothing to hide and you’ve done the right thing!  Then simply stated by simply stating the facts, the votes and your past record if you are proud of your accomplishments.  Put emphasis on what you will do in the coming term, address the real problems, what proposals you have for going forward to rectify the issues.  What are you going to do…not what the other guy failed to do!  Stop the bullshit!!!  Why can’t it be simple, my believe is that they don’t really give a crap about the average person or issue.  Why should the politicos care, they make good money, have great healthcare and are set for life.  If only it were that easy for the rest of us.  Shame on you all for the ten of millions of wasted dollars on campaigning, helping to fill the landfills with thousands of letters, postcards and whatnot that has been sent out to every household over the past few months.

Well in any case in a few hours there once again will be peace for a short while anyways.  Then it will begin once again, but a short reprieve and some time for my headache to go away.  Congratulations on reaffirming this cynics views of the entire process with the knowledge that I will not be showing up at any polls today to cast my vote.  As I do not believe there is a vote for “None of the Above” category on the ballots.

That’s all I have to say about that…