Claus and Effect

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way.
And don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.

37th President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, was born on this day in 1913. (died 1994)

Don’t worry. This isn’t a political post.

I don’t write a lot on this blog about the wearing of the red suit. I save most of that for my Santa Mike RVA Facebook page and website.

Still, when you spend a quarter of the year being Santa Claus, and even longer preparing, it’s hard to separate the personalities.

I’ve been portraying Santa in some form or other for well over twenty years. Longer if you count the unofficial portrayals whilst assembling toys in the middle of the night.

The first time I was asked to be Santa, I have to admit I was a little offended. It was for a church production (not your typical pageant, but that’s another post). Sure, I’ve always been on the heavy side. But at that point in my life, I had no beard and my hair was still, mostly, brown.

That was also the year our second son was born. I’m sure there’s no direct connection to the pigment loss.

For the next few years I’d don the suit in a production or the occasional visit to a preschool.

Then somewhere around 2016, I had my first professional gig with PetsMart. Thankfully, they provided the suit. It was a fun two days holding lots of puppies and kittens. Turns out the bigger the dog, the more afraid of Santa they were. The guinea pigs were fun, and the ferrets were a riot.

Then the lady showed up with her snakes. Snakes.

Since that time, I’ve had a regular gig at Kings Dominion portraying Santa in Tinker’s Toy Factory, a fun stage show that runs nightly during Winterfest. I’ve been there five out of the last six seasons. We didn’t have the show during the “Two Weeks to Slow the Spread.”

I’ve also branched out to do personal visits, and I spent the pandemic year doing virtual visits which prompted one of my favorite authors, Sean Dietrich, to write about me in Santa in November.

Visits can be everything from hectic to boring. Heartwarming to heartbreaking.

This past season, I spent an afternoon in an adult daycare facilty with special needs adults.

True story: Santa was broken when one young man said that what he wanted was for God to take him back to when he was born so that he could take a different path.

What do you say to that?

There are lots of other questions…my mom is sick…my parents are getting a divorce…my dog died.

Santa just loves and hugs, and when appropriate, offers to pray.

Santa never promises. At least this Santa doesn’t. I just smile and say “We’ll see what we can do, but I’ll try to make sure you have a good Christmas.”

Always, requests for at pet must be deferred to the parental units.

Twenty, even ten years ago, I would have laughed if you had said I’d enjoy being Santa.

I not only enjoy it. I love it.

I even see it as a calling.

All those years in government and politics when I thought the arguing and the often brilliant commentary was making a difference.

Now, every November and December, I know that I am indeed making a difference. It may be a small one, but it’s a difference.

And when a child asks for world peace?

Ask them what color unicorn they’d like.

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MONDAY MONDAY: If It’s Easy, Is It Worth It?

NOTE: I briefly considered posting a picture my own desk on this post. Very briefly.

According to the people who decide what day it is, today is National Clean Off your Desk Day.

I’m working on it. Actually I’m working on cleaning out my entire home office.

As I posted on Facebook Saturday:

Dear Charities: I have empirical evidence that mailing labels and notepads are not cost effective.

The plan had been to overhaul the office between Christmas and New Year’s. For many reasons not worth your time, but that took a lot of mine, it didn’t happen.

I’m not just cleaning off the desk, I’m revamping the entire office. That means everything comes out, but doesn’t go back in. It also means that everything (or a lot of things) comes off the walls and most of that doesn’t go back.

It’s just no longer functional for what I need.

I need space for writing, space for art, a cozy corner for reading and napping.

And, as much as I may think or feel otherwise, I don’t need all the extra stuff.

True, as I’ve written before, I don’t have to have the perfect environment to write or create. In fact the perfect environment doesn’t exist. I just spend a lot of time in the home office and I need it not to bug me when I can’t find the stuff I need.

That was a longer introduction than I intended.

What prompted the post is the continuing series of ads I’m getting on social media. Both about writing and about art, specifically painting.

Here’s the easy way to write your book in a weekend.

Here’s an easy method to learn to paint.

Great, I’m all about making the process easier. But is the good stuff supposed to be easy?

Writing is hard. Writing well is harder.

The same with art.

I can type pretty quickly and do some stream of consciousness writing for a few minutes and rattle off a few thousand words. But it is worth reading?

I’ve been drawing since before I could write the alphabet. I’m constantly working to find ways to improve my work.

Should I then be offended by the ads that tell me how easy it can be?

I’m not really. I mean, if a process helps you feel like you’re creating and you develop products you enjoy and are proud of, then by all means, go for it.

Just don’t tell me that the writing or art I’m doing is easy.

Because it’s not.

There’s no magic formula for writing the next best seller, or creating the next masterpiece.

Trust me. I’ve looked.

You may thank me later. I just saved you the low, low price of $99.00 (for today only).

Let’s get back to work.

American singer, guitarist, and actor, Elvis Presley, was born on this day in 1935 (died 1977).


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