Two Thoughts

Contrary to the opinion of a certain British pop group, one is not the loneliest number, for included in one is zero, and thus one is not alone. Zero is the loneliest number, for zero only includes the empty set, and thus zero is alone.

I recently heard someone describe the current Santa from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as a “very realistic santa” which got me to thinking that if Santa is not real, what would make any given santa more realistic than any other. Of course the image of Santa that we have is very real, and thus if a given santa conforms to that image, then he is realistic, but does that make santa real? If we can think of something does that make it real, and thus in corollary does our not thinking of something make it unreal? Does anything exist outside the mind?