Let’s go Fly a Kite
“When you send it flying up there, all at once you’re lighter than air…”
My daughter and I watched
Mary Poppins a couple of nights ago. That was after we watched “Saving
Mr. Banks,” how Walt Disney persuaded P.L. Travis the author of Mary Poppins to
allow him to make the movie.
Neglected kids had a
magical nanny come to take them on outings, play games, never be cross or cruel,
never give them castor oil or gruel and never smell of barley water…. They got
to laugh on the ceiling, jump in and out of chalk drawings, and Mary Poppins, instead
of allowing Mr. Banks to fire her, tricks him into taking this children, Jane
and Michael, on an outing to the bank where he works. The father, George Banks, gives Michael, his
son, a tuppence to start a bank account.
On the walk to the Bank, Michael
sees the old Bird Lady at the Cathedral and wants to spend his tuppence to feed
the birds as the old Bird Woman pleads but is dragged along reluctantly to the
bank.
The bank wants the money,
the tuppence. They want it enough to grab it from the boy’s hand. In the tussle,
noise and confusion there is a run on the bank.
Any reference here to us?
The movie was about
saving Mr. Banks, about personal crisis and redemption. It takes Travis’ tragic
childhood and writes a happy ending to it.
The healing value of Art.
When you don’t know what
to say, say a nonsense word like "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”
Take a sad story and
write a happy ending.
And go fly a kite.
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,”
Jo
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone
else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they
are deciding, make even more art."--Andy Warhol