"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."

"Is There a Santa Claus?" was the title of an editorial appearing in the September 21, 1897 edition of the New York Sun. The editorial, which included the famous reply "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus", is seen below.

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except 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 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 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 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 man 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, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

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Thomas Jefferson intrigues me.

The HBO mini series "John Adams" ended yesterday - and I am sad. One of the best things I've seen on television EVER. You know, you spend time with these historical figures and you follow them through their ups and downs and then everyone dies at the end and you're left sitting there - wanting more.

The screen capture above is of Thomas Jefferson (brilliantly portrayed by Stephen Dillane) at Monticello around 1818, nine years since he had been president. He is reading a letter from John Adams concerning the death of John's wife, Abigail, who Jefferson was very fond of. This moment in the film depicts the rekindled friendship between Jefferson and Adams that had been stalled since Adams lost his re-election bid to Jefferson in 1800 (actually, they first rekindled their friendship through a letter in 1812, not in 1818, as the movie suggested.)

My point about the picture above is that upon seeing it I instantly felt a deep connection to Jefferson - one that had been brewing throughout the movie. There could be several reasons for this. The first thing the picture reminds me of is my friend Justyna's home in Irving Park, Illinois (Chicago). She has a Victorian that she completely renovated and I feel very much at home there - it's very open and inviting, clean lines, simple in its elegance. We've gardened together there, and Jefferson's hat and clothes suggest that he just came in from gardening to read Adam's letter. He is wearing a light shoe (which you can't see here) and it made me think that Thomas might have worn the Crocs people wear today to garden in. The open door leading outside to the left shows that it's pleasant weather and I too will be heading to Chicago in pleasant May weather in a couple weeks - perhaps to do some gardening???

As this scene unfolded, I wanted to be in that room (Jefferson's study or "cabinet") with Jefferson (or in Chicago) - looking through his telescope or playing with his polygraph (he didn't invent it but improved upon it) - an early copying device (on the desk to the right), or reading the books he had on view on his movable book stand - seen to the left. You can purchase a line-by-line reproduction of the original at the Monticello site online for $618. I'll endeavor to make my own, thank you.

The other reason I'm attracted to Jefferson is that he had so many interests and was a true Renaissance Man. In 1962, 49 Nobel Prize laureates gathered for a White House dinner, which led President Kennedy to comment, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

Aside from being one of only two presidents who served as Secretary of State and Vice President, Jefferson was a horticulturist, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, author, inventor (I've mentioned a few of his inventions above) and founder of the University of Virginia.

I'm going to study Jefferson. I'm going to read the hundreds of letters he's written. I will examine his presidency. I will study Monticello. I will become an expert among my friends on this man - this Renaissance man, Thomas Jefferson.

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