Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nonduality Highlights each day
How to submit material to the Highlights
#3392 -
Thursday, December 25, 2008 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Our
Daughter’s Christmas Grandpa
http://zhouhui.wordpress.com/
The myth of Christmas has been kept between my daughter and her
parents, me and her father for exactly 17 years since she was
told about Santa Claus and surprisingly received her first
Christmas gifts at age 6 in Beijing.
At her 6, she just started reading and writing at a primary
school in the city. The difference and the freedom outside of
kindergarten attracted her. Her eyes kept very busy to catch
everything fresh. Her talent on music, arts and drawing grew
rapidly. Her curiosity about the world around her was accumulated
almost out of control: 15 days after she had enrolled into the
primary school, she skipped school with one of her classmates
during lunch time. They spent the whole afternoon in a public
garden nearby and did not tell anyone. (I believe it was
well-planned by the two girls.) After she was satisfied with the
answer to her question, from where she had been dropped to the
world, she asked closely how she went into my body and stayed
there for such long time without any complaining. There were tons
of other questions about these and those in her little
mind……We could tell this via her shiny and blinking
eyes.
How could we regulate her sudden growth and the endless requests
in order to let our little girl absorb and sort out the freshness
she met challenging and joyful with a balanced rate? At that
time, I was working hard on English improvement by studying
traditions, customs, people and history, including Christmas,
mixed with or related to the language. Why didn’t we
introduce Santa Claus to her life, which would certainly extract
her additional interest, and also create some connection between
the lovely old-man and her learning year round? It was also the
time that Christmas was not as well-heard or well-talked about as
it is in China now (It is still not identified as an official
celebrating holiday in the country). So it was good to let her
know.
One night, two weeks before the Christmas in 1991, our daughter
learned about Christmas and Santa Claus the first time. She was
extremely lured by what we told her, and believed the
unbelievable myth. We did not have fireplace or chimney, so
decided to hang a bag on our balcony to make Santa’s
delivery conveniently. She loved the kind and beard old-man who
always smiles and brings surprise to children, and she insisted
on calling him “Christmas Grandpa”. She also had been
behaving very well since Santa Claus was coming to town.
However, one day she showed me her worry about the Christmas
gifts. She asked: “Mom, does Christmas Grandpa mind if there
is something wrong with my homework?” “What’s up
with your homework, my sweet?” I asked her. “Mom, is
5-3=2 right?” I said: “Yes.” “Why did Teacher
Hu (a mid-age kind lady, the teacher in the class our daughter
stayed) still mark an “X” (means incorrect) beside my
answer “2” that I have written twice?” “Show
Mom your numbers, please.” When I saw her 5-3=2, I could not
help, but burst out laughing. She wrote “2” into the
reverse, no wonder why Teacher Hu gave her “X” again
and again, and no matter how many times she corrected, the
“2” was consistently written in reverse. “Oh, my
dear and poor daughter, you made such lovely and funny mistake
that Christmas Grandpa would enjoy it very much, I am sure!”
On the Christmas Eve, after having seriously hung a bag on the
balcony, she went to bed unwillingly. Once making sure that she
was asleep, her father and I were as quiet as if two cats walking
on the toes to finish Santa Claus’s job. Next morning, she
got up much earlier than usual. In a half way of waking up, she
smiled secretly and tiptoed cautiously towards the balcony with
both hope and uncertainty. I saw her searched and then she fully
woke up when touched something in the bag: “Mom, Dad come
here, Christmas Grandpa really visited us last night and left me
gifts!” Her little voice raised up, “Look! A pencil box
with pencils, a ruler and an eraser in it, a pencil sharpener. Oh
wait, there are two bars of chocolate, too!” She felt
extremely different on that school day (We did/do not celebrate
Christmas in China) because she was the only one in the class, or
in the school who received amazing gifts from Christmas Grandpa.
Next year, we again prepared for her Christmas gifts one of which
had bigger size than last year, so I asked her to hang a bigger
bag on the balcony. In the morning, she absolutely found her
Christmas gifts which fit the bag perfectly. She smiled and was
excited as last time, but her eyes this time filled with
questions: “How did you know, Mom that I needed a bigger bag
for the gifts?”
With our girl’s growth, the gifts from Christmas Grandpa
have become bigger and more expensive, from pencils, winter coat
to pianos, to a brand new car (for both her and me) this year. At
the same time there have been fewer and fewer layers covering the
myth of Christmas or Christmas Grandpa. Especially after my
daughter and I came to Nova Scotia, Canada, we are exploring the
tradition and culture of Atlantic Christmas Seasons. However,
nobody among our three has pointed the secret out.
Keeping it silently and harmoniously has become part of the life
we all built up particularly for our daughter (though my husband
and I divorced several years ago). No matter at her childhood, at
teens, 20s, 30s…… and 80s, she can always ask:
“Mom and Dad do you know if Christmas Grandpa will send me
gifts this year?” We will continuously answer her:
“Christmas Grandpa always knows if you have been good or
naughty.”
The secret, the mysterious feelings and our love will be with her
for long.
Zhou Hui, in Halifax, Nova Scotia
http://zhouhui.wordpress.com/