The Easter Bunny and Other Life Characters

Sometimes when I sit down to write, I don’t know where I’m going with what I’m trying to say. This might be one of those times. Today’s Daily Prompt asks if life’s characters like the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus are harmless fiction or pointless lies.

Life’s characters. That might be how to explain it. I’m one of those people who reads a book and gets emotionally attached to the characters. I feel their emotions, I experience their ups and downs. And then I’m sad when the book is over, but I get over it and move on to the next thing. No harm done.

I feel the same about life’s characters: Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, Stork, et al…

I never had that devastating moment of finding out Santa Claus wasn’t real. Looking back, I think I was a believer for longer than my classmates. It never occurred to me when a classmate said they didn’t believe in the Easter Bunny that he might actually be right. Oh ye of little faith, right? My realization that these characters were fictional was gradual. There were doubts, then a sense of what is actually practical (not how Santa gets down the chimney, but rather how he got back up!). Then when I finally had myself convinced they weren’t real, it was never “I’m convinced my parents lied to me and I will never trust them again.”

Oh ye of little faith. Ahh yes, now we come to it. Are any of these life characters physically real? Obviously not. But a little faith in magic never hurt anyone. Does Santa really enrage you because he’s not real? Does the Easter Bunny make you want to eat rabbit stew? Of course not. Memories of those characters have positive memories attached, not negative deception and lies. At least that’s how it works for me. Find your inner child and believe in the unbelievable.

You should also know that I still have a Christmas stocking and, up until college, I even had an Easter basket. Everything in that stocking or basket still comes from Santa or the Easter Bunny, even though we all know the truth of it. I haven’t lost any teeth lately, but when I lose them in old age I’ll be checking my pillow to see what the Tooth Fairy left behind.

About these ads