People

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, also sorry that if you've returned again and again you were greeted by my deceased cat. I wanted to post as I have been on the road for the last 2 weeks and many cool blogworthy things have happened but for some reason my password doesn't work on my iphone or ipad. So I have a lot of catching up for you. And I'll start with last night and work backwards. "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals...". That's from Men in Black I, a movie with a lot of great lines in it, and that line has always resonated with me. People do stupid things when they group up, they become pack like, they form an ism and swarm to get more people into the fold and if you are not in you are out, they get territorial, fight over land, develop a cast system, become elitist, etc. But when you get to see one individual and really see them for what they can be, that is a gift. Maybe it's why I love to do the plein air events and especially to teach. I come to know people one on one and see all the goodness that is possible in a person.

Last night I was flying in from a workshop in Nagshead, a great trip that I'll write about next but for now I'm on the plane heading home. One thing I love about coming back is that, especially on weekend flights at night, the plane is filled with families heading to Disney World, a place that I love. Not that I go there for fun or have some attachment to Mickey, I've just been a lot because of freelance work (over the years), it's what DW offers that I love. It's hope, it's fantasy, it's brilliance in every nook, it's time perfected people skills, it's the genius of Disney. And I got to experience an entire row or three of folks heading there, ripe with the anticipation of soaking for a week in the wonderful fantastical magic of the house that Mouse built. To my right, a family from Cartagena, Columbia with the cutest little boy, all of 4 years with dark curls and brown eyes and happy to be going to a place he in all likelihood has never been. To my left a couple, married some 30 years, going on their annual pilgrimage. It was pretty great because I had all sorts of insider stuff to share with the couple to my left. And to my right was just the joy of watching the one thing that separates us from all other life forms, anticipation of future events.

I get wrapped up in my stuff, as I think, we all do. But seeing that boy and the love his mother and father had for him, and he for them, the gift of what they were hoping to bestow in the coming week on this little mop-headed, round-faced sweet bundle and the expectant joy in it, it just made me happy. I'm in a plane filled with children of all ages, most excited to be going to neverland and the prospect of being a kid again, some going for the first time and myself, with probably a handful of others, not going at all but perhaps a tad envious at the expectation of being a kid. Again.