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www.desitalk.com – that’s all you need to know 12 COVER STORY December 26, 2025 At Santa School, Novice Clauses Find Community And Joy On World Meditation Day, Gallup And Living Arts Foudation Announce Initiative To Measure ‘Silence’ & Well-Being In The World O nWorld Meditation Day December 21, 2025, the Gallup organization joined the Living Arts Founda- tion to announce an extraordinary new initiative – measuring the level of “silence” in the world! The effort brings together Gallup’s long-standing expertise in worldwide survey research and The Art of Living’s pres- ence in more than 180 countries, Gallup noted in a press release December 19. At a jam-packed meeting held in Spring Studios in NYC, an event that was live cast globally, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar spoke about the importance of meditation, reminding those present that last year 192 member countries of the United Nations had recognized December 21 asWorld Meditation Day. “Meditation is so natural to our spirit. It’s a food for our soul – like a body needs carbohydrate, proteins, miner- als, amino acids, all that. …. The same way our spirit, our soul, it needs that calmness deep within. And that’s what meditation gives us. So, few minutes of meditation a day can make a whole lot of difference,” Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said. A representative from the renowned Gallup polling organization said the world was getting more hectic and stress and anxiety had been rising over the past ten years. “And today, we announce together with the Living Arts Foundation, that we are going to start measuring not just the noise, but in 140 countries around the world, we’re going to be systematically tracking the silence. And we hope to develop the world’s first statistics for well-being and meditation.” He went on to add, “So, stay tuned, because as the Gallup organization, it means that through our network of literally thousands of interviewers, it means we will be walking the planet, joining people in their homes, calling them on their phones, so that we can systematically track the “Silence” of the world. Thank you, Gurudev, for your partnership. Thank you very much.” Through this collaboration, Gallup will incorporate new meditation questions into theWorld Poll, enabling global comparisons related to practice and connections to emotional health and wellbeing, the polling organiza- tion said in its press release. ALL PHOTOS:Living Arts Foundation By A StaffWriter Sri Sri Ravi Shankar speaking at the Dec. 21, 2025, World Meditation Day event held at Spring Studios A section of the audience at Spring Studios, NYC, for the World Medita- tion Day event December 21, 2025. I t was the second week of December, and Ed Taylor was instructing his Santa School students on the art of improvisation. For example: When a kid asks you if reindeer really fly, Taylor – who also goes by “Santa Ed” – told the nearly three dozen Santas gathered on Zoom, you don’t just say yes. You say “yes, and they only fly on Christmas Eve” to advance the story. The students, mostly older men with snowy white beards, listened intently. Taylor, who’s been running a free Santa School since 2015, said he’s seen a burst of interest in recent years. Many of the novice Clauses are recent retirees, added Taylor, who has been performing as Santa for more than two decades. These fresh-faced Santas were once law professors, teachers, photographers, real estate agents, or health care provid- ers. A high-end Santa can make upward of $10,000 a month, but most of Taylor’s students aren’t suiting up for the financial benefits. Rather, they say they’ve found deep fulfillment and purpose in their postre- tirement roles. StephenWhite, 73, is one of Taylor’s newest students. Christmas wasn’t the same forWhite and his daughter after his wife, Kathy, died of leukemia several years ago. Kathy “made things magic for us,” he said. White’s outlook on the holiday changed recently, when a friend asked him if he would consider volunteering as Santa for a community event in Plano, Texas, where he lives. White looked the part, with hair and a beard as snowy as his surname. A self-described “terrible introvert,” he eventually decided the role could help him embrace the holiday. “I can’t summon Christmas up for my- self these days,”White remembers think- ing. “But if I was out there surrounded by Christmas and people, maybe I could enjoy Christmas again.” And he did. “For three hours, I was not a sad widower,” he said. “I was Santa.” It’s a story Taylor has seen play out many times, he said. “People have said the best part for them about being Santa is who they’ve become,” Taylor said. “They’ve just changed themselves.” White, who wrote for the children’s television show “Barney & Friends” for 16 years before retiring, said he was thrilled to connect with children again. After his first few classes with Taylor and several gigs, he’s decided to embrace the Santa lifestyle. “I’m finding it very interesting to dive deeper into the professional side of the Santa stuff,” he said. “And I don’t mean necessarily the business or promotions, but I mean the philosophy of it – the connecting with the more human side. Since losing my wife, I’ve struggled with that, and so, on a human level, this can be therapeutic. I’m hoping giving to others can be healing for me, too.” Joshua Carlile, who introduces himself as Father Christmas, was also driven to the role by personal losses. His mother, brother, two sisters and nephew all died between 2013 and 2022. “My world [had] fallen apart,” said Car- lile, who lives in Portland, Oregon. “And I really was nervous about how Christmas would go – like the joy was just sucked out of it all. And I thought, ‘How am I ever go- ing to get the Christmas spirit?’” But then, he said, it came to him: Why not become Santa Claus? It was life-changing, he said. The joy is back. “It gives me such purpose every day,” he said. “To come from those types of tragic events … you can’t control those things, but you can control how you behave after- wards. You can control the next chapter of it, and that’s what I decided to do.” UnlikeWhite, Carlile didn’t look the part. At 48, he’s on the younger end of Santas. He’s 5-foot-6 and weighs 155 pounds, and he still grows a full head of dark-brown hair. He also still works as a full-time caregiver. But after reading inspirational stories in the news, like of people with physical dis- abilities still competing in sporting events, he convinced himself that he could play the part. “If these people can triumph in do- ing what they’re doing,” he thought to himself, “certainly a little bit of dark hair couldn’t stop me from being Santa Claus.” With the help of Taylor’sWorldwide Santa Claus Network, he dedicated him- self to looking and embodying the part. He took over 200 pages of typed notes fromTaylor’s classes, which are generally once a week, in his first year, and is now set to release a book with Taylor on all the lessons they’ve learned. “I now can look in the mirror and go, ‘You’re Santa,’” Carlile said. “I carry that badge of honor proudly. No more do I have the impostor syndrome.” Becoming Santa is not just about per- forming as the character, Taylor said. It’s also about who they have become outside the character, when the famous red-and- white hat comes off. Taylor said his Santas have noticed they’ve become gentler with those around them. JimMonsen, or “Santa J,” who is from Orem, Utah, started his journey to becom- ing Santa about four years ago. His daugh- ter teases him that he’s since become a much nicer driver. “If somebody turns their blinker on, I’ll back off and let them in,” Monsen said. “That’s what Santa would do, right?” Many also hope to create a legacy, Tay- lor said. “We’d like our kids, or grandkids, to have this better way of viewing us than what we did our whole career.” “Not that we did anything bad,” he added. “But it wasn’t Santa Claus.” Sarah L.Voisin/TheWashington Post Children visit Santa at a holiday pop-up in D.C By Gaya Gupta, TheWashington Post COMMUNITY