First World

The Hunger Games–part 2

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Okay, so after reviewing The Hunger Games, I drew one lesson from it. (If you don’t like drawing lessons from things, you’re reading the wrong review.)

The lesson is this: The movie is parodying the media.

I never knew this from what I was told or the few clips I’d seen before, but the whole driving force behind the games is the Media. They run it like that show “Survivor.” Except, there are no volunteers (I don’t count Katniss and the two other “volunteers” because being in the games is still a forced thing,) and the people must kill each other instead of learning how to work together.

Other than those two insignificant facts, the games could be any kind of survival show. The people behind them rig them with extra challenges because the kids being at each other’s throats is not enough, and they monitor the whole thing. There is no escaping, no quitting, nothing.

If the kids did not have to fight each other, their combined skills might be enough to escape and defy the elitists who were forcing this on them. At the very least they might die together, and retain their humanity. (I would’ve like that movie better.) That would be an inspiring story, and more true to what history teaches us about the overthrow of evil.

But not even Katniss thinks of such an idea, and it is never broached.

Think, if the kids had all seen the horror of what they were being compelled to do, they could have made a real statement by refusing with one accord to do it. there would have been repercussions, but if the movie had made it clear that it was the right thing to do, the kids could have overcome them.

Is there any doubt it was the right thing to do?

It’s true some of those kids were evil and demented, but they were that because they had grown up believing these games were their destiny, and that they were prepared to kill. Even if those kids had refused to change their minds, they could have been outnumbered by those who showed more humanity.

Katniss would have been a real hero had she convinced them to rebel against the idea of the hunger games, but we are never given any hint that the idea is even conceivable for them.

Because the games get their districts benefits.

The system is effectively evil, but after 75 years, you’d think someone would get fed up.

But the people have been convinced that this is entertainment. That it’s normal to take an interest in it.  Gale ha the right idea, everyone should stop watching. Katniss shoots that down, wont’ even try it. Don’t people go on strike in this world?

So, it really is the Media controlling it all. The sad thing is, the Media can only control compliant people. People may not listen to plain common sense, but they’ll listen to what someone on TV says.

WE all know better, but it’s easier to listen to Media and ignore our conscience.

Folks, what you see on TV is often no better than the Hunger Games.

There are dozens of shows that involve murder in every single episode, and many more involve crime in each one.

There have been scores of shows that show people disrespecting each other horribly, constantly, while laugh tracks are playing. Even some good kid shows still fall prey to that type of humor. I repeat, the good ones.

There are many more shows than I ever  thought possible that are pornographic.

who taught us this was normal? Who promoted it?

Much as I think the media fully deserves everything said against them, I can’t pin all the blame on the donkey, so to speak.

After all, who bought those televisions? Who turned them on? Who laughed at the shows? Who taught their kids it was all right?

I think its a testimony to my parents’ success in raising free thinkers that I to this day have different standards than the adults I know, concerning TV shows. But what if I did not think for myself?

It saddens me that things like The Hunger Games are so attractive to young people, because it tells me they are too used to little hope, little purpose, and low standards.

Now, I would not encourage people to be snobbish, I have been that, and I recognize now that it is also immature and small minded, but being snobbish is still better than having no standards beyond the Culture’s dictates.

But I will not say every show out there is bad. You all know I like some of them myself. But I am concerned that our focus is on the wrong thing, like who we ship. (If you’re unfamiliar with the term ship, it means who should be with who romantically, and some people use it as a friendship thing.) Or who we like. Or how funny it is. But we aren’t asking what the real message is, and if we should find it funny.

There will always be those who think I am a prude for thinking this way, but if I go by what the Word says, than I can never be too careful.

Here are my fallback verses whenever I start to weaken in my belief that high standards are a good thing.

“I will behave wisely in a perfect (blameless) way… I wills et nothing wicked before my eyes. I hate the work  of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness.” Psalm 101: 2-3

When the Bible uses the word know, it means experience, or know deeply, to get inside someone’s head, or soul really. Too many characters in entertainment are used to get us inside the head of evil. That is what they are designed to do.

My other passage to go to is this:

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good (clear or healthy,) your whole body will be full of light.

“But if your eye is bad (evil or unhealthy,) your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in  you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew 6:22-23.

When I looked up the above passage, I found a bunch of articles about how our eyes actually are a giveaway of how we’re feeling, what kind of personality we have, and how healthy we are. Seriously, look it up, it’s cool.

science always caches up with the Bible eventually. But most of us have looked into other people’s eyes and seen something about them.

Just like everything else about us, the eyes don’t set our personality in stone, they only indicate what choice we are making now.

And what we watch is what fills our minds. Especially what we’re focusing on as we’re watching.

I’ll leave it at that. Until next time–Natasha.

The Hunger Games.

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This is going to be a review post.

It may surprise a few people that until last week, I’ve never seen or read the Hunger Games. At least in my limited scope of things, it seems like that series was what kicked off the post apocalyptic trend in teen fiction. If you’ve read some of my previous posts you know how I view that, so needless to say the idea of The Hunger Games never exactly thrilled me.

I also never could understand why it was my 11 or 12 year old friend who first told me about them; and how great the books were. Man, if I had a dime for every time someone my age told me this or that was good and I thought they were out of their mind.

But over the years I heard more intriguing things about the series, so my sister and I decided to finally check it out and our dad sat in for some of it. (We didn’t ask him to, but he was curious.)

So, as we like to ask each other, what’s the verdict?

Well, to like this movie, I would have had to be surprised, it would have had to be different than I expected. But it wasn’t.

That’s not to say I expected it to be completely bad. There were a lot of good moments. Katniss saving her sister, Katniss and Rue (almost tears,) Katniss and Peeta making their big decision. Katniss grieving over Rue was more than I expected, and it brought a lot of humanity to her. Rue’s brother or relative saving Katniss was kind of cool.

And despite all the hate Peeta gets, I don’t see why he deserves it, but I’ve only seen the one movie.

So, after admitting all this was good, why wouldn’t I give this movie a thumbs up. I am one to find meaning in anything I can.

Which I do. But There are those who find meaning, and there are those who find a meaning that was clearly never supposed to be there, or if it was  it was the wrong meaning.

You see, it is hard enough to find a movie with any attempt at a good message, but it is harder to find one that even knows how to communicate its message.

At the end of “The Hunger Games.” I can’t really tell what the message was. It wasn’t about going against the culture, whatever Peeta thinks. It wasn’t about risking your life to save someone else, whatever Katniss’es original intent might have been. I guess, from what the scary guy with the white beard was saying, the movie is supposed to be about hope.

You all know how much I like hope.

And that is my huge problem with this movie and every movie like it. Hope is very, very slim. Hope is nearly given up. Hope lies in running for your life and then starting a rebellion. And I’m not even certain what part of what Katniss and Peeta did was meant to give me hope. They both started off willing to kill, steal, and destroy each other and their competition. This is supposed to make me like them?

I know Katniss wanted to save her sister, but doing bad things for you family used to be frowned upon; and it still would be in a different movie.  No one would question it then. Like Luke, should he have gone over to the Dark side to make his father happy?

It may seem like a completely different circumstance, but it’ not. Peeta had no such noble reason for being in the Hunger games at all.

I am glad Katniss killed no one who did not attack her first, but neither did she at any time declare it was wrong to do so. She did not stand up to the government till the very end, and then it was almost too late, everyone else had died.

But on top of all that, the whole idea of the Hunger games is highly disturbing. no one ever talks about it when they discuss the movies’ merits, but what kind of person thinks up such an idea, and what kind of parents in the future would allow their children to be taken without a fight? Gale at least wants to run away, why hasn’t that idea been adopted ages ago? I’d expect it to be a reoccurring problem by the time Katniss goes. (If it is in the second movie, then my apologies, I haven’t seen it.)

Really. Why do parents let their children watch this movie anyway? My sister and I are older teens, but our younger sibling wasn’t watching, and good thing too. Like I said, a 12-year-old first recommended this to me. Am I the only one who sees a problem with this?

Unfortunately, I usually am the only one who does.

As for the theme of hope, I want to know why we are satisfied with so little. We are given barely any to go on, we are shown precious little positive change because of that hope. Yet for this we are to be happy and feel inspired?

I think C. S. Lewis nailed the problem with most of mankind when he said “We are far too easily pleased.” (The Weight of Glory.)

We all talk about being exceptional, but we don’t recognize that exceptional people are not satisfied with small ideas, small goals, and small hopes. Things have come to a sad pass when I need to watch a movie about children murdering each other in order to feel related to and get inspiration.

And that’s my verdict. The Hunger Games is, in a sense, lowering the bar. I am perfectly aware I will make tons of people furious by saying so, and if it were deserved, I might mind. But though the movie has all the appearance of goodness, it is not actually good.

It has good acting, amazing scenery, and a fine score, it is moving in some ways; but none of that makes it good. It just makes it easier to mistake it for good. I almost would have too, but when it was over I realized that despite feeling horrified by what I saw, I was left with no lasting, strong impression of any injustice that I could have righted, or any improvement I could have made, all I was left with was the characters, and they didn’t inspire me.

I am sorry to have to upset so many people, but that is my honest take on it. However there is one lesson to draw from the movie, and I’m going to cover that in part two.

Until then–Natasha.

A real feminist.

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It’s no secret that America has a large feminists movement, and we even had a march dedicated to it recently. Many women make it their life’s purpose to promote equality.

I know men and women alike also hate the movement’s guts, and I don’t blame them. It has grown to ridiculous proportions.

Not that the original idea is something I dislike. I don’t even dislike the mantra “HEre me roar.”  Nothing wrong with roaring.

What concerns me is how deeply selfish feminism has become.

Stay with me girls, I’m going to explain.

I’ve never really dealt with sexism from men, though I probably will at some point, because it is out there, but it’s not half so common as it’s cracked up to be. I have already encountered sexism from women.

At the very least, if we must be sexist, I wish it was to some purpose. This marching and telling the world what it would be like if women weren’t at the work place is at best flaunting a long past victory; at worst, it’s lunacy.

Because if anyone should not be complaining about that, it’s American women.

What we should be complaining about is how those girls in countries like India, Cambodia, and Greece, are tricked into being kidnapped and sex trafficked. Millions, every year.

We should be complaining about how women are kept ignorant and helpless in countries where the Taliban is in power.

WE should be complaining that women in African countries are starving and dying of water contamination and also watching their children do the same, and many of those women and girls are forced into sex trade too, as the only way to avoid starvation.

We should be complaining about the Jewish and Christian women who are slain along with their families or have to watch their families die, because of their faith.

We should not be marching the streets waving our angry signs, because we are allowed only to show up to work and get paid for it and take it home to our families, and don’t have to worry about being stopped on the street and asked why we are out without a man.

We should not be giving men the finger for handing over our rights decades ago instead of shooting us or beating us for raising our voices.

What is wrong with us?

Don’t misunderstand me. Any prejudice is wrong, even if it is smaller in our country, but I snot the point of having a voice and having a power so we can speak up for those who are still silenced? and protect those who are still defenseless?

I repeat, feminism is selfish. At least what it has morphed into.

And it is not fair when we tell our daughters they can be anything, but we tell our sons to get out of their way.

We teach boys to not think girls are lesser, but we don’t teach girls to show boys the proper respect.

It goes both ways. There’s a saying “If you would be loved, be lovely.” And it might just as well be “If you would be respected, be respectable and respectful.”

But more importantly, it is selfish to rant about our very few misfortunes, and say nothing about what is going on around the world. It affects us too, immigrants are bringing it into our country, and I know people from other countries than America read this blog, and I mean them too. It is coming into every country.

I have heard it remarked on that schools are now teaching kids to be citizens of the world, whether or not that is a good thing, I can’t say; but if they are citizens of the world they ought to be taught to view the suffering in the world as part of their lives too. Something they should allieviate if they can. I get letters every month telling me about suffering I could help stop if I had money, which I don’t currently, but while I did, I gave some. It’s not a big deal. Its’ what we all should do. It’s not like it has to be a lot, most places are thankful to get anything, even five bucks.

I don’t have any organizations of my own to beg for, so you know this is simply what I think is right.

If you would support women, then support the ones who need it most. I don’t think it’s really so complicated.

But it doesn’t have to start with money. If you want to promote women’s rights, start by treating the women around you right. If girls tear each other down, or compete with each other in unhealthy ways, that is as  anti feminine as anything a man could do.

One more thing, when girls are angry, there is usually a deeper issue. I’ve had rape used as an argument against doing right by men, more than once. I can’t pretend to understand the effects of such assaults, but I do know that whatever someone else does to you, it doesn’t change what you need to do yourself.

Being angry against everyone will not help, and ignoring the fact that things like that happen daily to girls around the world is still selfish, because no one should want others to suffer a horror they’ve been through themselves. But I am not unsympathetic, and if I could offer personal advice, I would, but I suggest seeking more professional help if that is you case.

But hopefully it is not; and the rest of us have no excuse at all.

Whew! This is some heavy stuff. I just hope I’ve done justice to it.

What I really want to do is to wncourage girls and women to be more than that. To do greater things than they’ve seen demonstrated, and to think of other people besides themselves. i want to encourge men to do the same.Thsiis jsut a humn thing,not a gender thing, and we need to stop making it into that. That, I suppose, was my main point.

Until next time–Natasha.

“If there ever comes a time when the women of the world come together purely and simply for the benefit of mankind, it will be a force such as the world has never known.”–Matthew Arnold. (Emphathis mine.)

SAMSUNG CSC

Reach higher.

Perception vs. Reality

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A lot more depends on our perception than we realize. Our perceptions are not truth, but they enable, or disenable, us to recognize it. Ask any Christian who used to be something else, and they’ll tell you they had a shift in perception. And ask any atheist or deist who used to be Christian, and they’ll tell you the same things. But we all could guess as much without being told.

I don’t glorify Men’s opinions. but  I know they are still very powerful in of themselves. I think one of the greatest disservices we can do each other is to teach each other to have the wrong opinions. Which sound loony to our culturally tuned ears, but that won’t change the facts. Opinions were supposed to be, once upon a time, fixed in the truth about life, but now they are fixed in our personal preference.

Of course you’re bound to offend people if they think what they want should dictate someone else’s convictions. And that is what has happened.

Case in point, I was recently watching a movie review in which two guys were talking about a controversial issue in a kids movie, and they concluded by telling the people who would be bothered by it that they shouldn’t be, because there’s no right or wrong answer. Now these two guys are fairly sensible most of the time, but they are unfortunately very culturally influenced. I’m well aware my view of the whole thing isn’t even popular among a lot of fellow Christians, but I’ll say it anyway: Poppycock.

Look, everyone chooses what they believe, or say they believe, but to tell people who have convictions that differ from your own that they need to change to accommodate controversy….that is flat out disrespectful.

It demonstrates that instead of being tolerant of peoples’ beliefs, you are actually contemptuous of them. Which, if you are, I’d sooner you admitted it out right.

I have been quite pleased with my own followers who have not given me hate for expressing my own beliefs, I’m not afraid to be hated, but it’s nice to know people can still be above that.

However, it is not for my own benefit I raise the issue of tolerance, I know what I think, but my concern is many people don’t really understand what tolerance is.

I hate the word myself, because it is so misconstrued, but to tolerate another person’s belief is to let them believe it without threatening them or arresting them or fining them. they are free to believe it.

They are not free to never be argued with, and to never be subject to change. In fact, if these people will not change their opinions even when they are proved wrong, they are in error. That is actually wrong.

But so long as no one forces them at gun point to change, or something like that, they are being tolerated.

This ridiculous demand that spoiled young people make now that they should be allowed to be idiots in the name of tolerance, that is dangerous.

I have never in my life considered burning down someone’s property to protest something, nor do I go on the internet and blast people personally just because I disagree with them. I don’t mind standing up to someone, but that is not intolerance.

I am not the only role model here, of course, but I can see clearly how insane it would be to do such things, or at the very least, unkind.

I know so many people who buy into this fake tolerance thing. It has really crippled the Church’s ability to teach the truth.

Oh, let me pause here. It is generally assumed that people who go to church are too weak minded to think for themselves, and will go with whatever their pastors say.

But a funny thing about the church itself, as I know, is that they often feel people think too much for themselves, not healthily, but to the point where they will not change their minds, even if the Bible says to, and the Bible is the only thing that should change our convictions.

It may be some people let the church think for them, thought I have yet to meet any personally that I can be sure of, but they would not be the majority now.

But the problem of people being more swayed by the culture than by the church is very real. I don’t expect anyone who is  a non-churchgoer to think this is a bad thing, but can we look at the bigger picture here?

Unless you’re living in your own bubble of unconsciousness, you must have noticed that that the world has not improved over the past three decades. There are many alternative explanations for why, and the fact that I think the decrease of devout teaching is the cause may be laughed at, but still. Look around.

We have turned our back on God, but we complain that our people lack qualities that believing in God would produce, like feeling they have a purpose, feeling accountable for their actions, respecting authority.

I know it is an old topic, but it is getting more apparent all the time that we have lost something. Be it faith or hope or love, but likely all three.

But I am not a naysayer. I still hold out hope that we can change. That young people will not repeat the mistakes of the past generations. It would have to start with us waking up from this haze of tolerance, and self gratification.

The song of that siren, as Patrick Henry would say, will only lead to our own demise.

Only you can choose to open your eyes, no one else will do it for you.

I’ve said enough, so until next time–Natasha.

 

Different perspectives.

Reach higher.
Poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces.
Like a lily among the thorns.

 

 

 

Not a single day.

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I have heard it said that you can live 40 days without food, 3 days without water, but you can’t live a single day without hope.

And the first time I thought, “that doesn’t make any sense.”

But I’ve since realized there is something in that saying.

Depending both on your personality or on your history, hope may either seem like a weak, wimpy word; or it may seem like a word to depend upon. Maybe it is neither.

Perhaps the worst thing is to not think about hope at all, but I’ve been there, I didn’t used tot ink about needing hope. I think because I had such a comparatively smooth life, and hope was a  thing I associated with those who were facing a battle, at the end of their rope, and waiting desperately for assistance.

That’s another assumption we make about hope. We see it as a last reserve. Something people only need when they can’t take care of themselves.

But what if it really is something we need every single day?

I mentioned in my previous post about this man who said Earth might be hell. I think it’s worth noting that in hell, by definition, there is no hope.

In the book of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13, Paul ends his amazing description of love, with the words “Now abide faith, hope, and love (or charity.)” But he mentions hope before then, when he says Love “hopes all things.”

I would draw from this that there is no love without hope.

I have also heard it said, in a movie, that there is no love in hell.  There’s no faith either.

Forgive  me for going on about this, but the idea that earth is hell may be one of the most disturbing I have ever heard.

But sadly, if a person believes that, it will become true for them. Not because whatever we believe is true, but because a belief like that is a trap; a prison.

It’s like C. S. Lewis pointed out in “The Great Divorce,” those who will see the light, will, at the end of their days, say “I was always in heaven.” Because heaven will affect all their past, and make it a part of itself. (He explains it better.) But those who never left darkness will say “I was always in hell,” and both will be correct.

Some people say heaven and hell are states of mind, and they are right in one way. Your state of mind will determine which you will be in.

The word hell is tossed around a lot now, to the point where some believers won’t even use it because people think it’s a cuss word. Well, I won’t go into that issue, but whatever hell is used for, it is still an idea in people’s minds.

Heaven I don’t hear as much. I think the words we use reflect our outlooks, and that is scientific, by the way, and the increase of hell and decrease of heaven signifies something.

Hell is all about despair. “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” As Dante put it. That man who made that remark I mentioned above used Dante’s Inferno as an example. He thought the hell described there was like earth.

Are we born into hopelessness?  Well, it’s not like I’ve never come close to thinking so.

Heaven, on the other hand, is what we hope for. The opposite of hell in every way, but it is more than that too. For though heaven can swallow up hell, hell can never swallow heaven. To make things evil is always to make them smaller and weaker than they were before.

The trouble is, on Earth, it may look to us like evil is stronger. Many people have bought into that lie, and I don’t exactly blame them, because if you cannot hope in something greater, then what is to stop you from succumbing to the despair of the world?

Evil scares us because it seems to have no limits. Good does, we think.

I’ve heard just the opposite, that good has no limits.

This difference will radically affect one’s world view. If good is greater than evil, there is hope. If it is weaker, there is none.

I am bothered by the increasing amount of movies, books, and even teachings, that evil is stronger, more persistent, and more clever than good. You’ve seen it too, no doubt.

Historically, it is not true. Evil has many times been in power over whole countries, but good persisted in spite of all that.

We have reason to hope; not in people, though people will sometimes show us the Divine in their example; but in God.

I hope in God not because I never have been let down, but because He has not let me down.

I hope because I have to. It is true, I can live a single day without it.

Because to do anything, to be anything, to risk anything, I have to hope. So, it is true, to really live, you have to hope.

Remember in my post I really lived, when I mentioned that song, and how the dad in it is saying “Hope” constantly. Because we cannot make children choose wisely, but we can hope they will, and teach them to while we can.

I use hope every time I post, I hope that it will help somebody. I hope that I am saying the right things. I hope I am learning as I go. I can’t at any given time be certain of the outcome of it, but I hope. And the hope is starting to pay off.

It’s a truth even phycologists have noticed, hope, a. k. a. thinking positive, will affect your life.

It is hard to do if you’re in a rut of the opposite kind of thinking, but it is worth it to extend the effort.

Until next post–Natasha.

Pixie Dust.

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I’d like to start this post with the lyrics to a song that has struck me as very relevant in this day and age.

“I am not a child now, I can take care of myself, I mustn’t let them down now, mustn’t let them see me cry…I’m fine, I’m fine.

I’m too tired to listen, I’m too old to believe, all these childish stories, there is no such thing as faith, and trust, and pixie dust.”

This song comes from “Peter Pan 2.” Which is a horrible movie, I’m not plugging it. But surprisingly, sometimes these B-studio films have some great songs, at least to my taste. (Admittedly, my taste is not shared by many people.)

Anyway, because I was writing about classics and fairytales, this song came to mind. It just seemed to sum up the outlook so many people have. That we can take care of ourselves, and don’t need to believe in this nonsense that we heard growing up.

This strikes me as really sad. There’s a proverb “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” In our day and age, choosing what you believe is in, and that is fine, but too often that comes with a scorn for believing the same as your parents. I get that scorn myself. This post isn’t about that exactly, but let me just say this, if what your parents believe is wrong, then it is good to disagree with them. And a child who thinks for themselves will eventually throw off their parents’ beliefs if they are bad; but if the same child chooses to keep those beliefs, I would argue those beliefs may simply be correct. Or at least close enough to convince them.

See, a slave may serve a bad master as long as they cannot escape him, but a free man will only serve a bad master as long as he can tolerate it for his own good, but when it is no longer profitable or necessary, he will not work for such a master any longer.

I think following your parent’s belief is the same. If the children are truly free thinkers.

So, to get back to my point. We all are told we all need to believe in our own way. But though there is slight truth to that, most of the time that is used to justify complete irrationality on the part of young adults in regards to how they live.

No more faith, trust, or pixie dust for them. They have their own way. Even if that way makes little sense to anyone over thirty, they write it off as, all old people just don’t get them.

But interestingly, when we do this, we hit a roadblock when it comes to finding meaning in our, supposedly, liberated existence.

“I try, but it’s so hard to believe. I try, but I just can’t see where you see. I try, I try, I try.”

We try, but if we can’t accept anything old, or anything uncomfortable, we can’t get out of our rut. That rut usually means living for material things. Unable to really connect with anyone. Because we surround ourselves with friends who, like us, won’t admit to feeling lost, lonely, or sad.

This way of life ruins our relationships. We focus on darkness because it’s what we see and feel in our souls, but that focus destroys our ability to focus on anything better, that might heal us. I’ve been there. You probably have at some point, but imagine if you lived there, everyday.

“My whole world is changing, I don’t know where to turn. I can’t leave you waiting, but I can’t stay and watch the city burn. Watch it burn.”

The trouble in our life becomes too much for us. Though people in our lives love us and need us, we have nothing to give them, so we hide from them. We avoid them. Finally this happens:

“I try and try, to understand the distance in between, the love I feel, the things I fear, and every single dream…”

We are stuck. We have felt love, but we have felt fear. And our dreams seem separated from our lives by it. There was a time in my life where I gave up on my dreams because I knew I was too afraid of doing anything to ever accomplish them.

Faith. Trust. Pixie Dust. What does it mean?

The way I see it is, Faith is hope, and belief in the unseen. The realest things in life are the invisible. When we lose faith, we lose belief that there is anything but the here and now, that we can touch, taste, or feel. And we forget that things may be real that are not in our feelings, or in our reach–yet.

Trust means our willingness to be open to love, to joy, to happiness. To crying with people, to celebrating with them. Trust means you face life with courage, because you know there is a Higher Power looking out for you.  But if we give up trust, we have to look out for ourselves. As the opening line of this song says.

Pixie Dust always used to puzzle me, but it hit me just recently that Pixie Dust just represents the things we can’t explain. The powerful things that are beyond our ability to do, but can be done for us. like being able to fly.

You may think I am stretching that last one, but in the movie itself, that is the case. Jane wants to get home her own way, but she can only get home, Peter Pan tells her, by flying. Which she needs Pixie Dust to do. But she won’t believe in it.

So, why have I shared this very sad song, in this seemingly sad post. Well, because it does not end that way. Jane comes to realize that she needs these three things in her life, to really live. And the final verse of the song puts it this way:

“I can finally see it, now I have to believe. All those precious stories. How the world is made of faith, and trust, and Pixie Dust.

I’ll try, because I finally believe. I’ll try, because I can see where you see. I’ll try, I’ll try, I’ll try…to fly.”

What children believe by instinct is usually fairly true. Before they get old enough to think they can figure it all out. Personally, I think a belief in Pixie Dust does a child more good than any materialistic point  of view ever will. At least they believe in something outside themselves.

Not that I justify them always believing that. Or that I plan to tell children it is real. That is not the point. It’s the meaning behind it.

Until next post–Natasha.100_4836-e1490637683752.jpg