100 Days of Wonder – #34
So after the Halloween interlude, let’s get back to Disney and wonder and joy. It’s my work anniversary today. A year ago I joined my current employer. As you have noticed by now, I don’t need an excuse to reflect, nor do I need an excuse to scroll through Disney photos. I hadn’t picked a photo for today so I scrolled to see if something caught my eye. For some reason this one did. The bit of the Magic Kingdom in the picture doesn’t exist anymore. The photo is from 2006. Looking at it, it seems to me that Piglet is almost certainly about to fall out of the tree. Either that or he has an outrageously strong core. What you don’t know is that the next photo in the series shows Kath standing underneath this very fake tree with her arms ready to catch Piglet. So many times over the last 10 years (probable since forever really) I have just had to let myself fall, sometimes jump, and trust that the universe, often in the form of Kath, would be there to catch me. Sometimes what initially felt like falling was actually gently floating the the ground to bounce back in a different direction, sometimes it wasn’t falling at all but soaring higher than I could ever imagine and sometimes it was falling and landing hard and breaking in millions of tiny metaphorical pieces that needed careful putting back together. But what I have learned from that is to no longer be scared for Piglet or for myself. Falling is all part of our rollercoaster lives and you never know where you might land – maybe it’s somewhere where you’ll want to bounce up and get out quickly or maybe it’s in a ‘great big beautiful tomorrow’. So let’s stop asking ‘but what if I fall’ and instead ask ‘but what if I fly’?
100 Days of Wonder – #33
I hope today brings you a little mischievous fun, a smile or two, maybe too much sugar and definitely time for reflection. I have no idea whether the veil between worlds is thinner today than other days, whether communing with the dead is easier today (or even a thing at all) or whether the pagans maybe just knew how to throw a bloody good party to mark the end of harvest. It doesn’t really matter! As I embrace the modern Halloween spirit today by putting our pumpkins on the front steps, handing out sweets to kids (of any ages) who might want to pop by and enjoy the house all decorated, I am also reflective and thinking about all the people no longer in my life – whether they are not in this world anymore or whether they are just not in my world anymore. I am thinking about the idea of Samhain and autumn turning into winter, about shedding the things that are no longer needed and preparing for rest over winter. I am thinking about how that applies to work – what brings me joy, what projects make me smile and which ones maybe just need to done or benched? Who do I like working with and which relationships maybe don’t work so well (at all, ever or anymore) and what does that mean. What work practices and habits are serving me well and which are not. And beyond work, what do I want my darker months to look like? Have I got a balance between active, healthy, moving, running, strength training and the cuddles under blankets in front of log fires right? What needs to be less and what needs to be more to feed the soul? Is there enough play to go with the inevitability of being an adult? So for me part of today is embracing the playfulness of modern Disney Halloween, suspend reality for a bit and transport myself back to the Disney Halloween party we went to at Disney World. Tomorrow as we roll over into November, a calmer and less sugar fuelled sense sets in and I’ll be ready to take down the decorations and in that act of tidying, cleaning and putting away, prepare for a restful and restorative winter.
100 Days of Wonder – #32
Every story needs a villain. Does it though? Couldn’t we write our stories without someone having to be the villain? Is it just easier to write yourself as the good guy if there is a bad guy to contrast with? I’ve been thinking about this because recently I have had lots of conversations about the the state of Higher Education in England and the impact it is having on academics. Inevitably conversations turn to toxic workplaces and the villains of our stories. And of course I like to think I am one of the good guys, I like to think that I have used the privilege and power I have as a force for good, to champion and lift others, to help change the world and make it just a little bit brighter. I also like to think that I, like the Disney heroes have fought my battles and come through. But I also know that I am the villain in the stories others might tell. A shift of perspective and suddenly I am all the things that have been said about me. I have been thinking about this since I first mentioned this in a post 10 days ago or so. The Hero/Villain dichotomy just doesn’t work. Our lives and who we are are far too complex for that but we like to simplify things and the thing is, if we can point to a villain in our story then we must be the hero. If there is a bad guy then we must be a good guy and if there is evil then we are the good that triumphs. But I’m not any of those things. I’m not a hero or a good guy and I am not some abstract good that defeats some abstract evil. I am, like all of us, deeply flawed and complex. I do think we struggle to write our stories without a villain because defining who we are is so much easier with reference to something else. The Scarlet Witch in Marvel says ‘I don’t need you to tell me who I am’ but actually we do need to other characters in our stories to be able to define who we are or are not. Binaries, dichotomies, black and white… it’s all easy and it’s a way of telling ourselves that we’re ok. I do still struggle to see how some of the people in my story are anything other than villains. I find it hard to see how to rewrite those stories in a way that doesn’t position me on one side and them on the other and then conceptualises one side as good and the other as evil. But that’s never going to be helpful because while it may be true that there were sides, the rest is less clear and depends on whether you ask them or me. And maybe my overly reflective nature doesn’t help here. I tend to look back and overthink and dwell on the past and that lends itself to rewriting our stories. But, as one of Disney/Marvel’s heroes and villains said ‘Don’t Look Back. The Past Is Exactly Where It Belongs‘ (The Scarlet Witch). That might be the key. Look forward in your story and treat every new character with kindness. If we all do that maybe none of the rest really matters. But while we figure out how to do that, there is always a Disney Villains parade where you can see the line up of all the bad guys we love to hate.
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