by mittens oh my!.
I spent yesterday with Wookie and his family and had a great day at "the happiest place on earth", Disneyland. We were in true form of family silliness and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly being with one another.
For those that don't understand the Disney phenomenon, are reacting with violent anti-consumerism sentiment and think that Mickey Mouse is the anti-Christ, let me give a window to look at the Magic Kingdom through my eyes.
Ahhhh... mom and dad ... they were young and enthusiastic and doing the new parent thing and planning a trip to Disneyworld was something they enjoyed more than we were conscious to realize. I have pictures of my brothers and I with monogrammed Mickey ears holding balloons. I have a random memory of watching a blue mickey balloon stray off into the night sky while a brother cried...
I've spun in the tea cups with my brothers and with my bestfriends. I've watched friends perform on their stages and television shows. I've been on Space Mountain with my mom and my grandmother. It's a place where memories of the past collide and each time I return, another row of color is woven into the tapestry of nostalgia.
So yesterday as my brother filmed our upteenth boat ride through the "It's a Small World" water river, he narrated his Blair Witch styled version as we all improvised along. Now we just need to edit some scary music into the mix.
What is Disneyland? It's a theme park, an amusement park where rides are for little kids and big kids. It's a place where you are surrounded by people who are stories themselves; some are having their first visit or their only visit, and some have been there a dozen times. The more you go, the more you build memories that you never seem to outgrow.
It is a very surreal place to walk alongside the child you once were. But that child teaches me many things... the most important lesson is that that child is always present and that growing up doesn't erase who you are...
JNET
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