This video is a remarkable experience. It is in perfect harmony with a letter
exchange published in 1897 (below).
Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before
a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving talk, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.
The following exchange appears on a website owned by
Professor Randy Pausch. On September 20, 2007, Dr.
Pausch delivered his final lecture.
http://www.cmu. edu/index. shtml
"Dear Editor,
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say that
there is no Santa Claus. Papa says 'If you see it in
the Sun, it is so.' Please tell me the truth, is there
a Santa Claus?"
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 our 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 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 that 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, or 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 supernatural beauty and glory beyond.
Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is
nothing else as real and abiding.
No Santa Claus? Thank God he lives and he lives forever. A
thousand years from now, maybe 10 times 10,000 years from
now, he will continue to make glad the hearts of children.
Written by Francis P. Church in 1897
Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk. com
i4crob(at)earthlink .net
