SANTA CLAUS LIVES…….
Dear Member, Querido Miembro,
Christmas is a time for remembering absent friends. A time to reach out the hand of friendship. When the Dana struck, we raised €6,247 for the Red Cross here in Javea who had teams of volunteers on the spot. More recently we raised €1,733 for Make a Smile to bring some Christmas cheer to the children in need in their care. A total of €8,000 raised (from 1,100 members) through your generosity. I thank you, the Executive Committee thanks you, but most of all, the victims of the Dana and the children thank you. And that does not include all the donations to local charities made directly by our members. Also, many of our members volunteer with local charities like Project for All, Todos Juntos, Caritas, Help of Marina Alta, MABS, the Cancer Nurses ……. the list goes on and on …… Good people, doing good things for others.
In 1897 eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote to the New York Sun, saying “Dear Editor, Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. My Papa says “If you see it in The Sun it’s so”. Please tell me the truth – Is there a Santa Claus?” The editor published his response:
“Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptic age. They do not believe, except they see. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. Alas, how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. 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? Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. There is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernatural beauty and glory beyond.
No Santa Claus! Thank God he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.” Francis Pharcellus Church 1897.
So Dear Member, let us raise a glass to our own Santa Clauses here in our community. Let us toast absent friends – those friends still present, and new friends, not yet known, that we will discover in 2025. “To the U3A, to a happy and healthy retirement amongst friends – Cheers, Slainte, Proost, Skal, Sante, Salud, or as the Spanish toast – Pa’ arriba, Pa’ abajo, pa centro, pa dentro (get it in ya!)”.
Merry Christmas to you all.
Claude Grealy, President.
