“If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it.”

Willy Wonka

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Even in today’s angst ridden, sometimes dreary, world, if you take a moment you can find the glimpses of paradise. Now. You may have to look hard on occasion or, at minimum, make sure you see what you are looking at. Anyway. Willy Wonka is suggesting paradise is, well, Hope (just without saying it). Actually he is suggesting faith is simple (you just have to look) and Hope is available (bits of paradise all around us).

Now. While all of it is available, it means making choices (and all that comes with the choices).

Willy Wonka, the movie, clearly shows us that life is about risk and return and following rules and breaking rules and how choices have consequences.

At the same time maybe he also shows us that in a sometimes dreary anxious world it is easy for an adult to forget lessons they learned through their eyes as a child.

How about the childlike logical choice from the adult Mr. Turkentine?

“I’ve just decided to switch our Friday schedule to Monday, which means that the test we take each Friday on what we learned during the week will now take place on Monday before we’ve learned it. But since today is Tuesday, it doesn’t matter in the slightest.”

Awesome. Sounds quite silly and, yet, reminds us measured time is a very human thing with some fairly absurd human definitions. Its a remind that the past, present & future are blurred when learning.

And Wonka.

`A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men.’

Life and choices are always all about perspective. The moment you lose perspective you have lost dimension in your life. Therefore, life becomes “flat.”

I am not suggesting always being happy or optimistic or some positivity bullshit philosophy.

I am suggesting having to try to have some fun in life and being hopeful against all odds.

I am suggesting there are times when you have to let things go for a while and just act like a kid.

Eat candy, run around and play, steal fizzy lifting drinks and bump into the ceiling that now has to be washed and sterilized, it doesn’t matter as long as no one’s looking.

As Willy Wonka tries to remind us, it’s okay to break the rules every once in a while.

So.

In the end, Willy Wonka is a movie for adults, but hidden in the voice of children.

It champions innocence, honesty and childhood dreams. His factory is a place where anything can (and does) happen.

But. As Wonka says “I couldn’t leave it to an adult, they would change things”.

Frankly. It shouldn’t be that way. I could share some research here to show that creativity and imagination gets bludgeoned out of us throughout adulthood but I will not. I will simply say that just the thought that “I couldn’t leave it to an adult” should disturb us.

Ok.

Maybe it should just be a good reminder

For once in one of my posts I am going to end where I began.

Paradise is everywhere around you if you look for it.

Even in a child’s worst day there is a moment of joy or amazement or ‘something’ that makes their day have at least a glimpse of sunshine.

Why shouldn’t adults have the same?

Oh. One last thought. Instead of ‘be careful what you wish for’ think about this:

Willy Wonka: “don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted.”

Charlie Bucket: “What happened?”

Willy Wonka: “He lived happily ever after.”

Paradise exists even in a dreary weary world. You just have to look for it.

Written by Bruce