100 Days of Wonder – #13
The picture is of the Contemporary Resort taken from the ferry that connects the Magic Kingdom to the Ticket and Transportation Centre. It was taken in January 2006 and the now familiar sight of the Bay Lake Tower which would be to the left of the building is missing. I talked about familiarity and it’s importance in previous posts but looking at this photo made me think about it more. It’s not just that our brains need something familiar (my base camp in the 100 acre wood) to go explore (learn from), my brain needs the familiar to focus and also sometimes to recharge. I am actually quite happy at the limits of my comfort zone and I like change and new and different. But I also like familiar. I like it to rest my brain and also to focus. I go to the music I listened to over and over and over when I was younger when I am writing. I like writing in my Mum’s house with its mix of things I remember from being little, some of mine and Kath’s old furniture and some new bits and pieces and as much as I like exploring new places and having adventures, I like going back to the Contemporary. The smell as you walk in, the sounds, the knowing where things are. Familiar doesn’t necessarily mean ‘the same as it was’. It’s more about how a place, music, book or whatever makes me feel. I don’t mind Bay Lake Tower now being there, I don’t mind there being new things to discover every time we go. It doesn’t make it any less familiar. I think maybe it’s about not having to think too much about things and just feeling at home in a space or moment.
100 Days of Wonder – #11
Ah Deadlines. Let’s ignore for a second that I look ridiculous and talk about deadlines. Anyone who has ever worked with me knows that I struggle to take academic deadlines seriously. Generally, if it is research related, I am likely to be late and if it is anything else, what I would call a real deadline with real consequences of not doing it on time, I am likely to be very last minute. Often that’s because I am overcommitted because I can’t say no. It’s not actually because I like the whooshing noise they make as they go past (sorry Douglas Adams). But Walt Disney wasn’t wrong. If I didn’t have a deadline I would faff forever. I need a deadline to get things done and focus the mind. I have accepted this as a way of working that sort of works for me. I faff around, I stop and start and never really get into it, I have ideas, I might even map them out, I procrastinate and then, with the deadline looming (or having arrived), I snap out of it and get shit done. It’s not pretty, sometimes it’s way more stressful than it needs to be but it’s how I have been getting stuff done all my life. I marvel at people who are organised, have an accurate sense of time and how long things might take and seem to be able to glide through life with a distinct lack of chaos. Deadlines can’t do that for me but they can at least ensure that I keep building my dreams – even if rarely on time.
100 Days of Wonder – #1
I have Covid so I have been both bored and incapable of actually doing anything useful for the last few days. Yesterday, to cheer ourselves up, we booked tickets for Disney on Ice: 100 Years of Wonder for next spring and as it happens, today it is 100 days until we go on our next Disney Adventure. As a result I have been daydreaming, reflecting, thinking… whatever, about the idea of wonder and of escapism. In my induction talks to our new students I also talked about finding the joy in what we do, particularly when we are having a hard time. So as I have been drifting in and out of conscious thought staring at random stuff on TV and coughing my lungs out, I was trying to look for wonder and joy. Here’s number 1 of what may or may not be a 100 day series of finding them and using my Disney or Disney related photos to do so. Of course it is Disney based, that’s where my brain goes when it needs to either escape or is bored or needs cheering up. But in scrolling through photos and closing my eyes and mentally flicking through memories I have thought about so much more than Disney. So bear with me over these post, some will be about work, some will be about running, some will be about life. I hope some will make you laugh and some will make you think but most of all I hope they inspire us all to pause and find joy in the wonder of our lives. I remember the first time I saw Disney World fireworks. I had never seen anything like it. I had never seen anything like Disney World and I was already pretty overwhelmed after a day of having my mind blown repeatedly. I remember standing at the edge of a very busy Main Street USA. I remember that it should have been noisy but that it felt like I was in my own bubble and everything else faded into the background as I was completely in the moment. When I am trying to write or really focus on something, that’s the feeling I try and re-create. It’s both happy and joyful and completely focused. The Disney Fireworks can still do it for me. Here they are from our last trip.
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