Restore order with Imagination

This afternoon I was watching “Saving Mr. Banks,” a story about Walt Disney trying to make the movie “Mary Poppins,” which happens to be one of my favorite movies, but I heard a line that really made me think deeply about life.

“…because that’s what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again, and again.”

Walt Disney was trying to explain that what he often gets tired of remembering how things were (are). Laying to rest the regretful sadness of our past and finding ways to reimagine things in a better light.

As always, I look at this from a few different perspectives…

As a parent…possibly as a spouse, friend, family member…We do this all the time, or at least the healthy, optimistic side of us will. Heck, even as an individual, there is always a way to find hope where there might not be. Being grateful when most things are looking grim. That’s what the movie “Life is Beautiful” is all about. A father protecting his son while being in a Nazi concentration camp and pretending it’s a game.

The other way I’m looking at this is a flaw I should probably correct. How often do I look at life with or a particular situation with the hope that it’s going to be scripted like pathetic Hollywood movie? When life is quiet, and I’m trying to see the picture or look for the next step…my heart hopes that fate and a miracle is about to step in with a soundtrack of deliverance. But I don’t recall a time where the sea has parted, or love has concurred.

The last point of view is trying to be preventive…guarding or shielding the ugly side of life. I have friends and family that do this. It’s hard to argue that allowing innocence to prevail. But that community or society around my kids must be even more important. To think my kids will gain their understanding from inside the walls of my home or their mother’s home is reckless. So…to what degree do you/we/I allow my kids to live in innocence?

I don’t have answers, suggestions, or additional insight about the line from “Saving Mr. Banks,” but that one part...” restore order with imagination” is something that’s on my mind.