My way of thinking/ For the love of Walt Disney

It will come as no surprise to my faithful readers that I dearly LOVE Disney drawn animation.  I enjoy the computer generated stuff as well, but for pure artistry, I prefer the hand drawn stuff.  There is magic in the idea that real people used pen and paper (simplifying the process but you get what I mean) to bring hundreds of thousands of drawings to life.  The sheer magnitude of such an operation is astounding to me.


Besides the artistry of the drawings is the art of telling a story.  All the truly great animated films have one thing in common.  They are the stories that tell us that love conquers all and that good will always prevail over evil.  Simple concepts though they may be, they are ideals that have a ring of truth even in our adult cynicism.  This is the way things SHOULD be.  If life isn't quite that simple, we have to ask ourselves why not.  The follow-up question becomes, what can we do to make our lives follow the outline of a fairy tale complete with the happily ever after ending?


"Bambi" begins with a beautiful tour of a densely wooded forest.  While viewing nature's masterpiece we listen to a song that tells us, "Love is a Song That Never Ends".  The tone is perfectly set for the story of love between mother and child, then the love that comes with friendship, the love between father and son, and finally the love between mates.  We also learn how destructive and careless man can be when he causes a fire in the forest (not to mention killing Bambi's mother).  These are wonderful lessons at any age.


Then there are the Disney heroines.  In the early films, the heroines were victims who were rescued from their plights by the handsome Prince Charming.  In today's films the heroines are stronger females who are just as likely to save the prince from HIS plight.  I like it either way because the message is always that love conquers any and all obstacles.  If you believe enough and try hard enough, a happy ending will be the end result.


Believe me, I understand that life is far more complex than a Disney film.  But my point is that these stories can be templates for the way we approach our lives.  If we believe in the power of love, and if we believe that good will win out in the end, we have set up our own happy ending.  If we constantly look at the struggle, and not at the goal, we have set ourselves up for devastating failure.  We have the choice to NOT allow the challenges that life so casually tosses our way to throw us.  We can choose to face these challenges with the idea that positive trumps negative.  Destiny and fate are only words to describe that future which is unknowable.  No one can ever convince me of the concept of predestination.  If that were so, why in the world would anyone bother getting out of bed?


I recently wrote about the power of dreaming.  Dreams are hopes and wishes.  Without them we are adrift in the chaos that surrounds us.  I am not saying that we can, or should, disconnect from reality, but with a little Disney imagination, we can alter our own reality to reflect the world (our part of it) as it CAN be.  The possibilities are endless.


                                              Peace and Love,


                                                 Austin/Bill


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