Yup, that’s me apparently. I talked to Destiny a couple days ago about my decision to not have Santa visit Mommy’s house, and I became the Murder of All Things Magical. *sigh* I can’t necessarily say I blame her. This is a rough enough time for her. I’m dating someone, and it looks rather serious. Her father is dating someone else, too. He is becoming ever more the atheist, while my household is looking more and more toward the cross every day. She is thirteen and vacillates daily between tossing aside childhood and all its wonders, and embarking on this great adventure of responsibility we call adulthood. Therefore, I should have expected the tear-filled, horrified reaction I received. We’ll get through it, and I think she’ll understand eventually, but it’s not going to be right this second.
I have to admit, part of me is still clinging to the Santa myth, too. Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. I love the magic and the feeling of hope and love that accompanies it. I think this was one of the major deciding factors for me. My heart is clinging to the wrong magic…and if mine is, then my children’s will as well.
Destiny argued that I was taking away everything magical. “Are you going to make him stop pretending to be a dinosaur, too?! That’s lying right? Pretending is lying, too!” she cried at me with tears pouring down her poor, little face. I countered that pretending is rooted in knowing something isn’t real, but using the imagination to explore a world that doesn’t exist. She then yelled that he watches Spiderman and thinks that’s real…do we tell him EVERYTHING is fake? Do we kill all his little childhood delusions? That one actually stumped me a little.
I’ve spent the last couple days mulling that, and I think the answer is “no.” I do not need to destroy all his magical fantasies at 4 years old. Thus, if Ryan wants to pretend he’s Harry Potter and I’m Hermione Granger, then we will flourish our wands and yell with intensity “Wingardium Leviosa!” If he wants to pretend to be Max from Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak), then we will create mischief and will dance with the monsters while they roar their terrible roars and gnash their terrible teeth and roll their terrible eyes and show their terrible claws and he will be “king of all the wild things.”
But when he comes to me and asks me about Christmas and Easter, I will tell him the story of how God sent his son to Earth to dwell among us. I will relate the true story of how he lived a sinless life, died a gruesome death and dove into the depths of hell for each of us, and then rose again to prove the glory that was his birthright as the Son of God and prepare his disciples that would spread the Word to the ends of the earth. That…that is an infinitely wondrous amount of magic.
“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve ; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell : but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15 (KJV)
