Saving Mr. Banks

Wind’s in the east, mist’s coming in. Like something is brewing, about to begin. Can’t put my finger on what lies in store, but I feel what’s to happen, has all happened before.  -Mary Poppins

Remember a moment from being a child when everything lay before you and the world was a magical place? Childhood innocence wrapped in sunlight and joyous laughter—where all you had to do was grow up and all your dreams you imagine now would be real tomorrow?

Sort of bittersweet isn’t it? You know as well as I that with all those sunbeams come lessons. Lessons being a more positive way to say disappointments and mistakes.  And then you grow up.  You remember with a smile and you get on with the business of life.  But isn’t it wonderful…magical if you will, when you remember?

Last night I saw Saving Mr. Banks. For those of you who don’t know it’s about the trials and tribulations Walt Disney faced while trying to work with P.L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins.  Walt spent 20 years trying to get the rights to the book to make it into a movie–Saving Mr. Banks is the story of how it happened.  It’s also glimpses into P.L. Travers childhood memories of her father –sunbeams and lessons, magic and then the business of life.

I think Walt Disney must have been a smart man.  He didn’t want to commercialize childhood so much as he wanted to take our memories of innocence and give them wings.  Sometimes it is ok to just fly over the bad, to minimize it, and let the magic moments take on a life of their own in our imaginations.

Go see the movie.

Here’s to imagination and the joy of tomorrow.  Happy NEW year everyone.

Jen