Jamil Chad Letter to Santa: We have a country to rebuild before us 25/12/2022 04h00

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Dear Santa,

In September 1897, little girl Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to her hometown newspaper, the New York Sun, asking if you existed. His letter was motivated by pressure from peers at school, who were influenced by an early realism and insisted that you were a fabrication. Not knowing what to do, She asked her father, and his father gave him an interesting answer: If Santa is on the New York Sun, then he is.

The girl wasted no time. In a letter to the newspaper, he described his personal drama and made a request. “Please tell me the truth. Is there a Santa Claus?”

Days later, he would get a reply from the newspaper. “Yes, Virginia, there is Santa Claus,” the letter states, pointing out that his love and generosity are as real as their existence. And the newspaper ended the letter lovingly, noting that a world without Santa and girls like him would be sad.

Father christmas,

Trusting the press version of its existence, this year I have decided to send you a letter with wishes for Christmas. I know it’s been a long time since you took anything from me. I was preoccupied with challenges I didn’t even know existed. But I was that chubby kid from São Paulo who always wanted a soccer ball and a Careca shirt.

Anyway, I thought this would be a good time to talk to you again. I’ve never forgotten the beautiful story that was once told about the origins of your name in the Middle Ages: Christmas or the “new sun”.

You must have followed this, but the year was dramatic in my country. On top of that, we had penalties against Croatia. It is true that we have won important victories such as the defeat of a president who is the symbol of destruction and inhumanity at the ballot box.

But this is just the ground zero of a mission that will define our generation. We have before us a country to be rebuilt and a democracy to be built. And right now, most of us leave 2022 conscious of the existence of an exhausted, deeply divided society, and with a load of hatred.

In a world where distances are lovingly calculated, we will bring this New Year’s Eve back to our homes as cousins, sons, grandchildren and brothers. We left our public role, our profession at the front door. We return to ourselves. But will we be able to reunite our emotions with those who are part of building our most intimate identities?

As you can see, we need your generosity. That’s why I’m writing this letter to ask for three gifts this Christmas.

The first of these is love. You can bring it any way you want. A new couple in love, the birth of a new child, a well-kept flowerbed. But I would love to have that love established in the form of public policy. That is, the guarantee that resources are used so that people can live in dignity. To love as a right. Love as a guarantee of survival, no matter how diverse.

Therefore, help us not to lose our capacity to love, which is the foundation of transformation.

My second request is that we should not be devoid of anger. Those who cried the most during the pandemic process were not those who gave up. But those who do not accept the situation. Angry ones. Today, this indignation is our weapon against injustice, racism and violence. Reject the idea that the night has won us over. The idea that a stranger’s suffering has nothing to do with me.

In Rome, writer Juliana Monteiro spent the year transforming everyday scenes into riot, symphonies and anger. She says hatred can circulate because of society’s indifference. Because of the silence of most of us.

So help us not to lose this anger, which is the fuel of transformation.

The third request is no less important. I hope the Lord gives hope. The only girl from New York Virginia refuses to give up. Hope that suffocates cynicism, renews our faith in dreams, dares not so expensive, defies logic and makes utopias possible.

So help us not to lose hope, which is the compass of transformation.

Dear Santa,

Martin Luther King said that we can only see the stars when it is dark enough. I think we are experiencing a darkness in 2022 that makes us see again what drives human existence.

Now, with love, anger and hope, I am sure we will be able to open a new solar cycle.

Merry Christmas dear Santa

Jamil

PS: Personally, I had one more wish: to see São Paulo as world champions again. But I understand that even Santa Claus has limits.