Why Should Children (And Adults) Believe In Father Christmas?

“Humans need fantasy to be human.  To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.”

“Tooth fairies?  Father Christmas?  The Easter …”

“Yes.  As practice.  You have to start out learning to believe the little lies.”

“So we can believe the big ones?”

“Yes.  Justice.  Mercy.  Duty.  That sort of thing.”

“They’re not the same at all!”

“You think so?  Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy.  And yet … And yet you act as if there is some ideal order in the world, as if there is some … some rightness in the Universe by which it may be judged.”

“Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point …”

“My point exactly.”

With due apologies to Terry Pratchett

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