St. Nick

I know, odd thing to say when I don't do the "Santa thing" with my kids. Thousands of people will fault me for that choice, but I refuse to blur the reality lines here. I want my kids to know what is fantasy and what is reality. Santa, Harry Potter, and the people in Mommy's books are fantasy. Jesus is real.
St. Nick is real too, the original one anyway, not the legend that has grown up around him.
What I am thankful for today, on St. Nick's own day, is that people like him existed. Random acts of kindness weren't something they came up with in the 1990's, they were being done thousands of years ago by people living in little stone huts no bigger than my sewing room. They weren't paying anonymously for some one's meal or putting a note on some one's desk, they were providing the funds to keep a child out of slavery and feeding those who really and truly needed it to survive.
And you know what, they didn't do it to get on the radio. They didn't do it to promote their business or agendas. However, that is what made people pay attention, because they truly didn't want the thanks, they did it because it was the right thing to do.
I have to wonder if that is the difference between a good person and a great person, the true motives behind their secret acts... but either way, I want to be like them. I want to be THAT thoughtful, THAT committed to helping my fellow man, THAT pure in my intent.

Thank you Lord, for men and women, remembered and forgotten, who taught this world to be more like Thee.