J. M. Barrie’s play, The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, not only tells the tale of Peter Pan, but also of myself. Where did I meet my activated intuition, imagination, intellect, and predictive spontaneity? Somewhere amongst the southern regions of metaphysical streams of consciousness. Quite literally within the vast sea of our collective knowing. I have no intention to ever return to the world I left behind. I always had a difficult time, too, with my shadow as Peter did. It was always playing an elusive game with me keeping me on my toes. Just like my faith, one day God interrupted my obsessions with my shadow. He told me to stop chasing it. Instead, integrate it into my terrestrial being. My spirit has been flying high since.
Once I welcomed it in the front door and called it by name it was integrated into my being. We fought in the playroom for fifty years. After half a century we incorporated one another fully by realizing our purpose and potential. My cosmic number three cannot tell a lie, and my lucky number 27 knows that three is mighty, but three to the third power is a spiritual enigma, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost where Chris Consciousness is born, lives, and breathes within each of us. Everything that was considered fringe by those around me when I was a young child have all proven to be true. No lies. No stretch of the imagination. Just plain truth never hiding, just abiding in clear sight lighting the way.
It was no accident that my first and foremost memories of lucid dreaming were actually me leaving my physical shell as I floated around the house. These astral projections I experienced as a child were filled with a pure fondness for swimming down the halls suspended in the airflows of our home. After a few decades they evolved into wicked flights of fantasy wielding a magical form of localized center of gravity excursions riding the rails along the edges of skyscrapers on my rollerblades. No matter how much my angle teetered I never lost my balance. I never fell. Even my rollerblades were skimming across a finite gap of air just microns between the massive city structures and myself.
Now those were some exciting ways to spend a night. Whew! Did I ever mention I was conceived in Eden, North Carolina, and born in Greenville, South Carolina? After 22 years in Atlanta I came back home. Now that I’m back in Greenville, I know why. Hunter green was always my favorite color. I guess it makes perfect sense if I give reality a wink while flying back to Neverland each night visiting my friends, my soulmates. All we need is one happy thought and Tink will guide us along the currents of wind and wisdom whispering sweet songs of curious joy and innocence. By the way, I used to live down the street from Tink’s high school in Smyrna, Georgia. Well, the actress that played Tink in Hook.
“Where did I meet my activated intuition, imagination, intellect, and predictive spontaneity? ‘Second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning.’ I have no intention to ever return to the world I left behind. I found my Neverland.”
COVER ILLUSTRATION DETAIL OF J. M. BARRIE’S PETER PAN BY GREG HILDEBRANDT, 1987. I HAD THE PLEASURE OF SEEING THE ORIGINAL MATTE PAINTING OF HOOK’S NEVERLAND HANGING IN THE LOBBY OF INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC AT THEIR ORIGINAL LOCATION, KERNER OPTICAL, IN MARIN COUNTY, CA. MY DEAR FRIEND, E.T., GOT DIRECTIONS TO ILM BY CALLING FROM A PHONE BOOTH ON A DESERTED HIGHWAY IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. I’LL NEVER FORGET THAT ROAD TRIP. TWELVE YEARS LATER I COLLABORATED WITH RED GIANT ON KNOLL 3D FLARE FOR AFTER EFFECTS. JOHN KNOLL’S ORIGINAL INSPIRATION FOR HIS INITIAL RELEASE OF LENS FLARE PLUGINS FOR PHOTOSHOP, AFTER EFFECTS, AND ELECTRIC IMAGE ANIMATION SYSTEM WAS REALIZED FOR HOOK.
Care to take a gander what is my happiest thought? It’s not a what, it’s a who…my incredibly creative ace and empathic daughter. Love ❤️ Dad 😎