P is for Peter and Pan

Things I remember about Peter Pan: Robin Williams will always be Pan, Banarang!, there was one time they made Tiger Lily's tribe multi-cultural (the movie Pan), Neverland in far under everything else in the Archipelago of Dreams (Chronicles of the the Imaginarium Geographica), and if you perform Peter Pan on stage you need to make Peter Pan fly (no matter how hard to try to get around it), Peter Pan flies.


Peter Pan was written by J.M. Barrie, born James Matthew Barrie. Some people wonder how someone like J.M. Barrie could write a story like Peter Pan. And most people probably don't know that Barrie wrote plays, a couple of them are renowned, Admiral Crichton and and Dear Brutus. It makes me curious to seek these out and some of his other novels.

Barrie received a shock at age 6 when his brother died and because of an over-baring mother retained a child-like innocence of the time before everything changed, which is a strange kind of sadness. It also make a lot of sense why he ended of creating the stories of Peter Pan and Neverland.

I finally read the book, Peter Pan, sometime last year or maybe the year before, and I remember it was more detailed than the plays and movies. That isn't to downplay any of the movies or the theatrical productions, there is just more presented in the book. It is a wonderful book though.

But, where some people read Peter Pan growing up, I was much older when I actually read it. It gives a different perspective when you do it in the order.

Morning Flight

It starts with adventure

in the late hours of night,

when the windows are open wide

and in sneaks a stray shadow.

In the late hours of night,

when you are supposed to be asleep

and in sneaks a stray shadow,

followed by the most unlikely boy.

When your supposed to be asleep,

but awakened by the sound of crying,

followed by the most unlikely boy

and a temperamental faerie.

But awakened by the sound of crying

and you don't know what is coming next;

and a temperamental faerie

blows you dusty kisses.

And you don't know what is coming next

as you float off the ground,

blows you dusty kisses

and fly so far away that time will forget you.

As you float off the ground,

think happy thoughts

and fly so far away that time will forget you,

and second star to the right, straight on to morning.

Think happy thoughts

when the windows are wide open

and second star to the right, straight on to morning;

it starts with adventure.