[stylist] the stories behind the question

Sun Aug 10 18:23:22 UTC 2014

Chris,
This may be too late as you are on vacation, however, I wanted to add to the
interesting suggestions you have had. No definitive answer from me, but a
few observations from my life.
I have never been one to confuse children with mythical stories beyond a
comparatively young age. The tooth fairy, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny,
etc. are useful in early childhood  if done with the idea that the child
gets it-that someone cares enough about them to gift them when they stay on
track. And if they don't a piece of coal will likely be in their Christmas
stocking along with the neat new things. My preference to a question from a
young person when they ask if there really is a Santa Claus, is to be
honest. The answer is Yes, in the sense that it is the spirit of Christmas,
and most people want to give and make someone happy at the time of year that
is a revered holiday. It is a good time to discuss the reality of what
Christmas really means. 
My daughter-in-law is a firm believer in never telling my grandson the
realities. I recall Christmas morning some years ago, when I was trying to
get him to talk about why he would not share his toys with a visiting
friend, he explained that Santa Claus would have gotten him his own toys if
he deserved them. Since I was absolutely forbidden to destroy his allusion,
I could not say that this child was from a very poor family. I just
mentioned that he was a very good boy, and Santa may have overlooked a
request. Upon that, my grandson said that he would write Santa again and
request the toys that the boy had shown an interest in. 
My son, on the other hand, feels just the opposite and would tell him the
truth about everything if asked, but I stay out of it, and I do not know how
it is being resolved.
I am a second-degree Reiki practitioner. That does not mean that I truly
believe in the practice. But according to my sister, who is a Reiki Master,
I do not need to for it to be effective. So when someone needs help in any
aspect, I believe in prayer, or Reiki, or anything that lets the person know
that others really care about them, and the power of healing resides in the
energy that comes from that knowledge.
Your instances of kindness are just fine, as long as if the duplicity of the
action, when found out, if it is, will be explained as simply wanting to
bring happiness and a belief in good to that person, and thinking that the
person able to do this might have been late in doing this, or had his own
problems, and overlooked it, but you were not able, out of love, to overlook
this.
I don't know if this makes sense, but I will look forward to your story.

Jackie
-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Chris Kuell
via stylist
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2014 5:49 AM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: [stylist] the stories behind the question

Howdy, folks. Thanks to you who read and responded to my philosophical
question yesterday. I expected more responses saying either it was right, or
wrong, so I'm glad I asked.

Much of my fiction, as I expect is true for a lot of writers, comes from the
seeds of everyday life. So back in May of 2010, my mother-in-law was
diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given 4 to 6 months to live. The news
devastated us all, and this wonderfully alive woman slumped into a deep
despondency. I bought her things, tried to make her laugh, but her spark was
gone. So, I had an idea. She loved Tom jones (the singer) and I thought a
personal note from him would put the sunshine back into her. Searching
online, I sent letters to his representatives in LA, Las Vegas, New York and
England. I was able to find an address for his son, who is his manager, so I
wrote to him as well. A month went by, then two, and there was no news from
old Tom. And that's when I had the idea of writing the letter myself,
pretending to be Tom. I have a friend who lives near Las Vegas, and I knew
he'd mail it for me. But, in the end, I didn't do it. I just knew I'd be the
schmuck of the family if the truth ever came out. I imagined how happy the
family would be, and afterwards they'd frame the letter and comment on it to
friends, and all the while I'd feel like a total dog turd. My mother-in-law
passed away on October 9, 2010, never hearing from Tom Jones.

Fast forward to this summer. In July, my niece from Ohio, who is autistic,
came to stay with us for 10 days. We had a great visit. One day I made
buffalo chicken wraps, and I found out how much she loved Sweet Baby Ray's
Buffalo Chicken sauce. Over the next week, she polished off over a bottle
and a half of the stuff. My wife, noticing how much she loved it, encouraged
her to write a letter to the company, which she did. She went home, two
weeks went by, and I was thinking about her, so I went on amazon and bought
her a package of 4 bottles. Maybe a week later I get a phone call from my
niece.

"Hey Uncle Chris," she said with great excitement. "Guess what? Sweet Baby
Ray's sent me four bottles of buffalo chicken sauce! Isn't that the coolest
thing?"

It was only then that the light bulb went off in my head. In truth, I had
completely forgotten about the letter she wrote. So I was left in a
quandary. Should I tell her I bought the sauce, and rain on her day? Or
should I just let it slide, an untruth by omission, so to speak, and let her
think something totally cool happened to her. I only had a second, so I
picked.

"Hey, that's great," I told her. "They must be a really great company."

This incident made me think back to the Tom Jones near incident, and that
got me thinking about how I might turn this into a story. I'm leaving on
vacation in about an hour, so perhaps I'll work on it then.

Peace,

Chris

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