"Margaret Mead on Myth vs. Deception and What to Tell Kids about Santa Claus"

"Disillusionment about the existence of a mythical and wholly implausible Santa Claus has come to be a synonym for many kinds of disillusionment with what parents have told children about birth and death and sex and the glory of their ancestors. Instead, learning about Santa Claus can help give children a sense of the difference between a “fact” — something you can take a picture of or make a tape recording of, something all those present can agree exists — and poetic truth, in which man’s feelings about the universe or his fellow men is expressed in a symbol."
http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/16/hannah-arendt-the-life-of-the-mind/

Mmmmm, I love this. Poetic truths :)