The first trip Maria and I ever took together – it was a dark time in a very bleak winter – was to Disney World, mostly because it was warm there and we got a great deal on the trip. The Great Recession was just a few months old and the people at Disney were wheeling and dealing. One of the first things we saw there was a daily show called “Dreams Do Come True.” In it, Mickey, Snow White, Captain Hook and the Evil Queen chased each other around. The spirit of evil was vanquished when Mickey led the vast crowd changing “Dreams Do Come True! Dreams Do Come True!” This caused Captain Hook to flee and the Evil Queen to vanish in a puff of smoke. It’s an age old story, filtered through Disney’s particular prism. It rarely takes such a simple form.
This trip, Maria bought me this pin featuring Mickey and Walt Disney, a successful creative collaboration surely, and perhaps a hint of the evolution coming between human beings and animals. To my absolute shock, I’ve been wearing it. I’m taking it to New York tomorrow, that might shake my editors up a bit.
Nobody would claim Disney is cool or hip, it’s just that nearly everyone loves going there. Each time we go there, we look for the “Dreams Do Come True” show. A lot of people beyond Disney are accepting and exploring the idea that dream are important. They show us where we want to go, they lead us to the places of our imagination. At the time of our first parade, my dream was that Maria and I, both coming out of divorces, would be together. Soon after, we were.
Shortly after that, my dream was to write fiction again, and soon I wrote “Rose In A Storm.” This time in Orlando, my dream was to move forward creatively, to try and expand my writing in new and different ways. I am now negotiating my first E-Book. I am dreaming of our New Bedlam Farm and I believe we will be there soon.
It is a different way of thinking. It is not sophisticated, fashionable or even comprehensible. Before, I did not dare to dream of such things. I wouldn’t dare. I would have considered it arrogant and foolish, much like the mice and witches at Disney World.
People who have lost the ability to dream have lost joy and promise. I believe that dreams nourish the soul, give us hope, pull us forward, whisper to us to cherish our lives and live them, every day. Ring your bells, for a life well lived. I’m off to New York City for a couple of days, and the blog will cool down for a bit, like some overheated engine in a steam-filled factory.