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Merry Christmas Virginia

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Happy Holidays Everyone! For this month’s blog, I decided to focus more on the time of year and to reflect on all that has happened here. At Long’s Furniture World and Long’s Mattress, it has been a great year! This year marks then end of the 10th year we have been open under the guidance of our owner Doug Petroskey! We announced a new relationship with Riley Hospital for Children where a portion of every sale will be donated with a goal of $35,000. We saw the opening of not one, but 2 new stores! We are happy to welcome Long’s Mattress Noblesville and Long’s Mattress Greenfield into our family. This allows us to reach more Hoosiers than ever offering them that ever elusive commodity of sleep. Speaking of sleep, we know that during all the hustle and stress of the holidays, it can be difficult to get a full night’s rest. It is during times like these that I am reminded of Virginia (no, not the state). Some of you may be familiar with the story; but, those of you who are not, Virginia was an 8 year old girl who wrote in a letter to the editor of the New York Sun back in 1897. I have reprinted the letter and the editorial below:

The Editorial:

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticisim of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is is all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times then thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

This editorial, written by Francis Parcellus Church on Sept. 21, 1897 has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial. After reading it, I can see why. This editorial could have even appeared in today’s newspaper! So often we get bogged down with life’s troubles and worries that we forget the true meaning of the holidays. My goal this year is to not let those things get in the way anymore. I hope you will join me in doing so.

I also want to take a moment and thank each and every person that has come in to our stores and given us the opportunity to earn their business. We are both happy and blessed to have so many come in to support local businesses that make better quality products. Without you, none of this could exist. So thank you again! Have a Happy Holiday and we’ll see you in 2018!

Thank you!

Long’s Furniture World and Mattress