Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon

by Michael Lewis

Of course Sam was aware of Santa. “I’d like heard of it,” he said. “I hadn’t thought that deeply about it.” He thought of Santa roughly the same way he thought of cartoon characters. Bugs Bunny existed too, in some sense, but Bugs Bunny wasn’t real. Now, at the age of eight, he realized that other children believed that Santa was real, in a way that Bugs Bunny was not. It blew his mind. He went home that afternoon, shut himself in his room, and thought it over. “Imagine you had never been introduced to the idea of Santa as a real thing,” said Sam. “And then one day someone tells you that ninety-five percent of the people your age in the world believe in him. That this guy lives in the North Pole and has these elves. That he takes off with these flying reindeer. He flies into your chimney and brings you presents. Unless you’ve been naughty, in which case he brings coal. Though for some reason no one actually knows anyone who has gotten coal. And he does this just once a year. You’re like, ‘What the fuck? Where did that come from?’ ” He found his way to a solution that offered temporary relief: only children suffered from this madness. Yes, kids believed in Santa. But grown-ups did not. There was a limit to the insanity. But then, a year or so later, a boy in his class said he believed in God.