Convergences

Today my daughter, Kiri, lost her first tooth and my daughter, Mari, stopped believing in Santa Claus. And this makes me quite sad in the wistful sense. It's why I think Peter Pan is one of the most brilliant books ever written. Why generation upon generation is drawn to Holden Caulfield. The process of growing up, of letting go of the things and stuff of childhood signals a kind of passage, almost a kind of death, really. It's when you know that something is gone, it won't ever be able to be retrieved. I feel quite pleased that Mari believed in Santa Claus through to sixth grade. I feel like I accomplished instilling a sense of wonder and enchantment that was able to last even a few months past her getting her first cell phone. She wanted to know "the truth" tonight because of Kiri's tooth. For some moments there, while she was adamant about the non-existence of Santa, she still kind of believed in the Tooth Fairy. Because all these years, the tooth fairy has been writing notes to her, explaining why she forgot to bring the money for a couple of days, or demanding that she take better care of her teeth. When Mari lost her last tooth, she even left a present for the Tooth Fairy. Tonight the Tooth Fairy showed Mari where she'd been keeping all her teeth and Mari wrote the note as Kiri's Tooth Fairy and she said she was happy to know the truth, but happy to now be part of the magic.