2018-12-24

Dear Santa:

How are you? I hope you, and Mrs. Claus, and the elves, and the reindeer are all feeling good.

I know you remember anyway, Santa, but three decades ago I wrote to you this evening musing about the ramifications of "technological progress" and mentioning my youngest sister (Jeannine Athena-Carissa) in the context of there having to be a human literacy before there can be a positive computer literacy.

More than a generation of technology later, the concerns are deeper and all the more long-term. It is more than merely the contrast of my still using a rotary dial telephone versus marketings of the latest instant iteration of the interweb. The Angels know that being generous means to be giving of ourselves, not minimizing our inconvenience by "using an app"; that being patient means to seek understanding of another's circumstances, their views, their thoughts, even their reactions, not to build an unyielding common; that being kind means (as Jacob Bronowski observed) "We have to touch people...", not merely count them as a societal or personal demographic ("likes" or otherwise).

Angels know: Human champagne -- where one feels so warm and bubbly -- only exists when brighthappy smiles and brilliant eyes exist -- are shared, are cherished, are respected -- together and in abundance and with the enthusiasm of faithful hope. Smiles last when they are shared in person, not expressed as a colon and a parenthesis. Togetherness should be measured in heartbeats felt, not characters tapped. Love that caresses to the very depths of every aspect of one's existence lives in the moment and nourishes each moment... and is something else if its ongoing foundation is nothing more than alacritous technical gratification.

More now than then, these are all the more vital for children. Their childhood should not be purely an objective focus on their subsequent career survival coupled with an unending series of tools and techniques. Warmth and smiles and togetherness and love are more conducive to finding an internal balance even at the young age of children.

As each precious moment becomes each smile becomes each hug becomes boundless joy becomes decades and Love, my heart and mind and soul still share in their cores a particular fundamental: If there's room in your bag for just one more wish, please give everyone a little bit more of your sense of balance; a little less of what their employers want; a little more of what everyone deserves; and, most important of all, a lot more of what the children need.