St Nicolas and Children

Today is St Nicolas Day. St Nicolas lived during the 7^th century in what is now Turkey and he is the patron saint of children because in legend he brought back to life three children who had been murdered, chopped into pieces and dumped into a barn (and we thought our world was rougher than in earlier times).

St Nicolas is the origin of Father Christmas and Santa Claus. In Europe, especially, the day is celebrated with gifts for children, and parades with all sorts of costumes and masks.

So, dear readers, let’s put aside politics and terrorism and the Arab Spring and the Euro for today, and think a bit about children.

Here are some thoughts about children from famous people:

“Childhood is the world of miracle or of magic: it is as if creation rose luminously out of the night, all new and fresh and astonishing. Childhood is over the moment things are no longer astonishing. When the world gives you a feeling of "déjà vu," when you are used to existence, you become an adult.” EUGENE IONESCO, Present Past / Past Present

“All of us have moments in out lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them.” ERMA BOMBECK. That funniest of American journalists also said, “Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth.”

HENRY FORD was more serious. He said, “We teach children to save their money. As an attempt to counteract thoughtless and selfish expenditure, that has value. But it is not positive; it does not lead the child into the safe and useful avenues of self-expression or self-expenditure. To teach a child to invest and use is better than to teach him to save.”

And “Nothing you do for a child is ever wasted,” according to GARRISON KEILLOR

DOSTOEVSKY wrote that “The soul is healed by being with children.”

And, of course, there are many thoughts about children in the Bible: “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Mark 10:14

But, WALT DISNEY probably got it right. “That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up.”

So, what do the little ones say themselves?

"Don't kid me, Mom, I know they're my feet." -- 3 year old son, when his mother told him his shoes were on the wrong feet

A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather's word processor. She told him she was writing a story. "What's it about?" he asked.  "I don't know," she replied. "I can't read."

My grandson was visiting one day when he asked, "Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?" I mentally polished my halo while I asked, "No, how are we alike?" "You're both old," he replied.

Happy St Nicolas Day, everyone, and do something nice for the next child you encounter.

Tomorrow it's back to the real world.