St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, St. Nick is a Saint that continues to have a defined function. Not being raised Catholic, praying to any saint strikes me as strange, an out of sync movement in the symphony of survival. On the other hand perhaps my secular point of view is out of tune. I cannot tell if the truth lies on one side or the other. Perhaps there is no “side,” and the true or false game is the illusion.

Research reveals the historical beginning of the St. Nicholas myth. He was a bishop of Myra in the third century CE. A Bishop must have been quite busy, as a person of influence in the community, responsibilities professional and administrative. At that time a separation in the psyche between sacred and secular had not yet arrived. A majority believed in miracles, in divine intervention in all manner of situations, which shaped everyone’s expectations. Nicholas was known as “Nicholas the Wonderworker.” Did this develop during his lifetime, or did his reputation change after his death? Pious people have fertile imaginations with respect to miracles. All of our records about him were written centuries after his death. He is said to have calmed a storm on the sea, saved three innocent soldiers from execution, and resurrected three children. A few of his miracle stories, all impressive.

In the 21st Century Santa Clause is a individual sought by children in the month of December, when the days are shorter, the nights longer. Santa is the welcoming, approachable, bearded fellow who comes to patiently hear the list of things which children desire to receive on Christmas morning. I expect that an encounter with the kindly male is something to be remembered for a child. Adults are often impatient, unkind. Children are small and life is scaled for adults. Life is a competitive game that accelerates, difficult even for adults.

Saint Nick is a hint, a clue of what “might be.” What if we were biased toward giving? What if we were open to “miracles.” I don’t mean the sacred kind, an insertion of divine power, but the more subtle variety of miracle. I am thinking of doing a “off the cuff” kindness, or receiving such a gesture in the course of your day! Or perhaps that moment of discovery when a new idea comes into focus, and you are grasped by a never before entertained possibility.

Perhaps I describe a child’s world, a way of life precluded by the hard-edged adult world and its ways.