My.Daily.Distraction ~ Post 113: Thank You Peter Pan

12 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by duckykoren in Authors, Books, Classics, Entertainment, Fiction, Movies

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Books, Childhood, Christopher Newton, Fairies, Fiction, J.M. Barrie, Niagara On The Lake, Peter Pan, Shaw Festival, Theatre

Artistic Director Christopher Newton was at the helm during the Shaw Festival’s iconic production of Peter Pan.

On the day that my daughter and I went to see the play in Niagara On The Lake, I received a theatre program. Inside, Christopher Newton shared his thoughts on his love for author J.M. Barrie’s book, Peter Pan.

As I read it, he conveyed to me some Peter Pan magic of his own.

In an effort to prepare for directing Peter Pan, Christopher decided to visit the town he grew up in. What better place to find some insight into his boyhood roots he thought.

After all, Peter Pan is best known as the boy who never grew up.

His first stop was the home he had lived in while he was a young boy.

Of course, the house looked familiar as he viewed it from the sidewalk standing by the front gate. But somehow, the scene seemed all wrong.

The magic that he had anticipated at the thought of visiting his childhood home just wasn’t materializing.

After a few moments, he had a thought.

As he stood by the gate, he squatted down to half his size.

Then he grabbed the steel rungs just like he did as a boy.

He continued to peer into the front yard.

Gazing at his old house at the same height he would have been at ten years old he could feel his boyhood visions fall back into place.

Suddenly, the insight that had failed him only moments ago flooded back into his memory and he was ten years old again.

All it took was a simple adjustment to his vantage point.

As I read this narrative, it occurred to me that even the slightest shift in viewpoint can lead to a path on which I might find my own elusive magic moment.

Thank you Christopher Newton…
Thank you J.M. Barrie…
And of course,

Thank you Peter Pan…

Thank you for validating what I have believed all along…

Even as an adult, when the moment is right it’s okay to to affirm to myself that:

“I do believe in fairies.”

My.Daily.Distraction ~ Post 44: Regrets, I’ve Had A Few

01 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by duckykoren in Authors, Books, Education, Entertainment, Movies, Reading, Religion

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Baptist, Buddhism, Buddhist, Censorship, Choir, Dalai Lama, Decisions, Fairytales, Fantasy, Fiction, Harry Potter, J.K. Rawlings, Minister, Regrets, School, Sunday School

We’ve all had regrets in life.

My first major regret happened when I was seventeen years old although I did not realize my missed opportunity until a decade later.

On a Friday in November 1976 during my grade twelve world religions class, our teacher announced that he had an extra curricular activity that he wanted us, his class, to participate in.

Our mission was to find our way downtown to St. John’s Anglican Church that Sunday evening where the Dalai Lama would be making an unprecedented appearance.

Did I go?

No.

I had never heard of the Dalai Lama, nor did I have any interest in learning about the Buddhist religion.

Older and wiser now almost forty years later, and I have yet to forgive myself.

Several years back I told a coworker this story.

She then told me that her young daughter along with her school choir had been recently invited to sing for the Dalai Lama during his visit to Canada.

She then told me that she did to allow her daughter to go because she did not want her daughter’s Christian beliefs confused by anything that the Dalai Lama had to say.

I told her that was a very bad call on her part. There is a good chance that her daughter will have issues about her Mother’s decision not to let her sing with her school choir for the Dalai Lama.

Think of the insight she would have gained by listening to his live and engaging message on peace, love and forgiveness. His life’s experiences alone carry lessons that we can all learn from.

Several years ago, I had a problem with any parent who forbade their children from reading J.K. Rawlings HARRY POTTER series. Similarly, they were not allowed to see the movies either.

I grew up in a Baptist family. My grandfather was a Baptist Minister. All my cousins regularly attended Sunday School, no exceptions.

However, our entire family revelled in fairytales and movies even if the storyline included witches and spells and potions.

I am grateful for the fact, that all the adults in our family had enough confidence in us, their children, nieces and nephews that we would accept the offered movie or storyline for what it was:

A work of fiction.

There was never any question of what was reality and what was sheer imagination.

So began the lessons to maturely make decisions for ourselves.

And these lessons continue to this day.

I hope the same for you and yours.

My.Daily.Distraction ~ Part 22: How To Turn Scraps Into Gold

20 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by duckykoren in Authors, Fiction, Writing

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Authors, Books, Broadcaster, Clark Gable, Fiction, Gold, Journalist, Margaret Mitchell, Movies, Paul Harvey, Radio, Scarlett, Scraps, Viviene Leigh, Writers

Several years back while driving to work I listened to a short commentary by American radio broadcaster Paul Harvey. He was best known for his famous radio segments called “The Rest Of The Story” which was fortunately carried by Canadian radio stations.

When I was very young I had the good fortune to see Paul Harvey speak in person.

He appeared as a guest speaker at Toronto’s ‘People’s Church’.

His appearance at the church became quite the controversy when during the service it was established that he was not a secular Christian.

In his defence, he never claimed to be one to begin with.

But I digress…

Back to my car and my drive into work:

One day, as I listened on the radio Paul Harvey had an exceptional tale to tell.

He told the story of a young woman who was born in 1900.

Fiercely independent, she insisted on working outside of the home.

This continued until she unfortunately severely injured her leg and was unable to work for several years.

As Paul Harvey describes it, this woman became very bored while convalescing at home.

Housebound and with limited mobility, she one day took a long look around her home and noticed that she had accumulated hundreds of small scraps of paper which were strewn all around her house.

They were everywhere. There were bits of paper stuffed in books, inside drawers, vases, cupboards, anywhere you could possibly imagine.

She had hand written on each slip of paper a story of some kind.

These were stories that she had heard throughout her years. Some stories came from family members and some came from friends. Some stories were experiences that she herself had. There were stories that she had read in the newspaper while others were considered local legends.

Any story that she found remotely interesting would be jot down on a piece of paper and saved for later use.

As history would have it, the time eventually came for her to put all these stories to good use.

The name of this woman was Margaret Mitchell.

It took her several years to skillfully put all these stories together into a book which became very popular. In turn, this book then led to one of the greatest motion pictures of all time.

Perhaps you’ve heard of this book.

It was called…

Gone With The Wind.

And so, how many slips of paper have you got hidden around your home?

Like Margaret, I have accumulated quite the collection…

And her story has given me hope.

Epiphabets