Walking the Wall

Charles de Lint, one of my favorite authors of urban myth/fantasy, once
said, “A long time ago a bunch of people reached a general consensus as
to what’s real and what’s not and most of us have been going along with
it ever since.” People decide a whole lot of things and then whole
cultures and societies live and die by them and never seem to go back
and rethink the consensus or take a new one.

My niece, who is four, saw the video of me skydiving
and she was amazed. She watched it with wide open eyes and when it was
done, she said, “You fly, Aunt Kelly!” I laughed and nodded my head, “I
did, I flew, did you see me?” She repeated it again, this time very
adament, pointing out in the front yard, “You fly, Aunt Kelly, you fly
up in the sky, like Peter Pan.” I started to explain that I needed an
airplane but she wasn’t having anything of it and to this day she
believes 100% that should I choose…or find some fairy dust…or find
my happy thoughts…I could walk out the door and fly.

Not that I’m suggesting we all jump out of buildings  and could
really fly if we only just believed.  But there is something
powerful in the all knowing belief of a child. The boundaries of their
world are so much broader and I wonder what things we have lost or had
taught out of us–I wonder what we miss by floating along with the
“general consensus.”

Second star to the right, and straight on ’till morning.