One of the odd observances of the Christmas Skeptic is the effect of today's gift-giving Santa Claus on the development of greed amongst children. The observation is somewhat paradoxical considering greed is considered one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

But like anything else, throw any observation on its ear and you can get something really good out of it. In Girl Scouts, we had a number of traditions in which we were required to give of our time, our money, our belongings, and our hearts to help others. I don't know of any particular holiday tradition that does this, but what if we had a Santa Claus of whom we could only ask gifts for others -- and they had to be good gifts (as opposed to whoopie cushions, death wishes, and so on)? What if we could ask this being for anything -- not just expensive toys, or the jacket to keep a starving single mother warm, or the most extravagant automobile you can think of? And what if this were a Diabetes Santa?

The first thing on my Santa list would be a cure for Type 1 diabetes. I feel I have a right to ask for such a huge thing because I have Type 2 -- so a cure for Type 1 won't benefit me directly -- and because so many people I know and care about have to deal with its effects on a daily basis.

The second thing I'd ask for would be enough testing supplies and medications for all the people with diabetes who need them and cannot get them. Part of the issue is financial -- paying for production, transportation, and delivery -- but globally, the greater issue is the logistics of delivering these materials to people in remote regions where the only possible form of transportation is by foot, by mountain goat, or by aerial drop, or where the temperatures are extreme enough to denature test strips and insulin (and reliable temperature control is all but non-existent), or where the level of local violence (muggings, shootings, acts of war, and acts of terrorism) make delivery dangerous and unreliable -- and the likelihood that patients and clinics will be able to protect and use their medications, low. There may also be cultural issues involved: do the locals believe someone with a medication-dependent illness should not be allowed to survive, much less thrive? That may boil down to my next D-Santa request:

Diabetes education. Too many people, whether newly-diagnosed or who have been living with diabetes for many years, have never been told about breakthroughs in our understanding of diabetes and diabetes management. They are given out-of-date information and treatment regimens, or sent out into the non-diabetic world with nothing but a pamphlet and a syringe to fend for themselves. They don't know that tight control of their blood glucose levels is (in many cases) achievable -- much less how to do it, or why it is important. They either don't know about the complications of diabetes, or they don't know that they can be largely avoided or delayed by day-to-day management of their diabetes. They are not referred to diabetes educators, support groups, or the Diabetes Online Community. They don't know about dLifeTV, even though it shows on their cable television every Sunday evening.

And lest I be negligent about whom I'd like Santa to gift with diabetes education, let me add Everybody Who Does Not Have Diabetes. Help them understand that if we are acting drunk, we may be running low (hypoglycemic); similarly, if we are unable to articulate our "off" sensations, to understand that we might be running too high or too low (or too chilled, or too stressed, or too something else) to communicate with words or gestures. Help them understand that the correct diet for one person with diabetes will differ from that of another person with diabetes.

My fourth D-Santa request is to remove the cost of diabetes care from the equation of "making ends meet". This is probably less a "Santa" request than a "private charity" request, though: after producing, distributing, and delivering supplies and medications, we have to make sure that the market value of those items is so low that there is no incentive for the families of those who need them to sell them to pay for housing, food, transportation, clothing, education... or anything at all, regardless of whether they live in a developed nation or an emerging one.

The fifth item on my list is making it easier for people with diabetes, and people at the greatest risk for developing Type 2 diabetes, to eat healthy foods and to exercise. In the developed world, we need to disincentivize the production of high-calorie, low-nutrition-value foods and ingredients so that the cost of food is closer to its real cost of production, and we need to make it easier for someone with limited income to find, and to choose, fresh fruits and vegetables over Wonder Bread and TV Dinners. One possibility here is to help impoverished communities turn disused or vacant lots into community "Victory gardens", giving residents a stake in their neighborhood as well as much-needed healthy food (and exercise).

I'm sure if I stopped to think about it, I could come up with a myriad more Diabetes Santa requests that are aimed at helping other people with diabetes, requests from which I could not directly benefit. What would your Diabetes Santa requests be?