where danger can look divine

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“Inside this room, all of my dreams become realities, and some of my realities become dreams.”

Willy Wonka

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So. I begin with a Willy Wonka thought to discuss Life is a connection between dreaming and reality, aspirations and the daily grind, thinking and doing, all occurring “inside this one room” called “self”.

The first part of the Willie Wonka story is a good satire on how adults sometimes make trivial things so important and how the media gets carried way with stupid trivial issues that adults have heightened in importance. Well. That certainly sounds relevant in today’s world, huh?

The second half of the story is intriguing because Willy Wonka – a no nonsense candy maker who doesn’t put up with the brats – teaches us about “decision making” and consequences, or, how choices have varying degrees of risk as someone navigates their dreams and reality.

The reality is, well, the gauntlet between dreams and reality is all about assessing risk. Yeah. You have to risk something to achieve a dream and, yet, even with taking that risk often your reality reverts back to simply being a dream. What I mean by that is reality has a gravity to it. It is always doing its best to keep you tied as closely as possible to your current circumstances. Reality likes you just where you are in your lot in Life. Yes. This means dreams, or dreaming, is about a different version of reality. Existing reality finds that, well, dangerous to its existence.

Therein lies the crux of the quote – what looks divine to you (your dreams) looks dangerous to reality. Reality’s response? Reality will make it as difficult, even dangerous on occasion, as possible for everyone to attain your dreams.

Therein lies the crux of danger – risk. Even if you are resilient, persistent and “in for a penny, in for a pound’ with regard to working toward your dreams, there is always a large risk reality wins.

Look. Life isn’t easy. Dreaming isn’t easy. Reality isn’t easy.

We all know this <although aligning them like this can make one slightly pessimistic>.

Life is tough because running the gauntlet between dreams and reality means you have to accept that things may not get better by tomorrow, maybe not even next week, but at some point <in the future>. And while I don’t really embrace the whole ‘live in the now’ psychology, I do suggest that really the only thing dreams demand is improving yourself and doing the best you can every single day – kind of like “the now improvement plan”. Kind of like keeping an eye on the divine while navigating the danger.

Now. This is a parallel Life truth – one rail for adults and one for children.

Childhood is strewn with booby traps and the allure of the forbidden where danger often looks divine. In fact. Willy Wonka is a warning to choosing the seemingly divine and, yet, facing the horrors and delights, the dangers betwixt dreams and reality, the repercussions and traps often found on the other side of each “now” choice.

Adulthood carries a higher freedom of choice which is intertwined with a higher danger associated <note: the Wonka story places extra adult reflection of consequences by associating this with children>.

And. The movie is a reflection of an eternal truth – for every action, there is a consequence.

Eat too much? You’ll get fat.

Drink too much? Alcoholism looms.

Over indulge your children, they will torment you.

Over indulge your children, they will torture the rest of the world for the rest of their lives.

Certainly, within Willy Wonka’s world of delight and humor and unimaginable joy there is also a grim note and admonition to the choices we make every day. He puts adults on pedestals to remind them of responsibility for all to see. He portrays adults as clowns and boorish and sometimes poor examples of how to live life (pretty much showing us at our worst with regard to choice-making).

Certainly, the movie reflects how our choices as adults can beget a generation being raised as a race of over indulged brats who often deserve to be banished into some dark fate after their own “poor choices” (in the movie they simply disappear, of course, after disappearing Wonka says they’ll all be returned back to their “normal rotten selves.”)

Shit. Even Charlie, the hero child, is left standing at the conclusion of the quest not without sin.

For adults watching there is a tinge of disappointment as we watch poor examples of a generation <youth> in which we place our hopes. With thoughtfulness we see the repercussions, and consequences, adults have on the young.

And, yet, the end of the movie dangles hope that not all is lost with the younger generation.

Look. Life is tricky.

Danger can often look divine and some choices that look easy are complicated.

Shit.

The divine is always dangerous and all choices are complicated if not complex.

That said.

Dreams can become realities and reality can be positively affected by your dreams. There are dangers and risk tangled in every thread of life and choices we make and, yes, danger can be cloaked in the divine.

In the end I’d like to remind everyone that Willy Wonka, above all, reminds us of our responsibility to the young. They represent the hope to right our wrongs (intentional or unintentional wrongs). They represent the hope to fulfill the dreams we had that didn’t become reality. If we screw them up, we screw up our future. I imagine I could suggest they are the divine … and the danger.

Ponder.

Ponder it all.

For danger can look divine and the divine can always be found in danger.