This morning I learned there is such a thing as ‘Disney adults’.

How the Internet Turned on “Disney Adults

I am led by curiosity (or algorithm) to the above article by way of three memes. Fairly certain I’m not one, so maybe I’m not the right guy to speak to it exactly; but seeing as I just drank deep of 5 days of Disney’s World- for my 40th bday — seems important to consider I might just be a disney adult.

Do I have mickey TP stuck to my new balance arch support sneakers?

a Disney adult: To declare oneself a Disney fan in adulthood is to profess to being nothing less than an uncritical bubblehead ensconced in one’s own privilege, suspended in a state of permanent adolescence, raised on a diet of wasp-waisted princesses and talking-animal sidekicks and dancing candelabras, refusing to acknowledge the grim reality that dreams really don’t come true.

Its morning, the coffee is hot and slightly burnt. I’m thinking about us, animatronics and THE INTERNET.

Counselors and social scientists tell cautionary tales about negativity bias,a cognitive bias wherein negative events have a more significant impact on our psyche than positive events. Coffee in hand, and well armed with facts about this bias, I imagine my dark roast teeming with positive affirmations and pixie dust and I swallow. I welcome the hot magic as it slides down my throat. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the internet (appearing as a thought) reminds me that I ought to consider the dangers of toxic positivity— the belief that no matter how dire or difficult a situation is, people should maintain a positive mindset.

well which is it..INTERNET??!?! Remain vigilant in the face of a propensity for negativity or FIGHT the dangers of TOXIC POSITIVITY/ DISNEY ADULTHOOD by renouncing and immediately attoning for any disney adultness, double down on identification? make a flag, burn it!?

Turns out I can’t rub the stain out while thinking there’s a stain.

Our Human subconscious, and if you will collective unconscious, communicates (immediates?) in symbols. It’s positive. To illustrate this I like this exercise.

Try it if you’d like: 3…. 2… 1…. Don’t think of a pink elephant.

How’d it go? did you notice you can’t not imagine it, even if the directive is not to.

We have this in common, a positivity bias that’s without value or judgement. That is, in a way, before a judgement, before a value placement. And we also have types of dreams in common: falling dreams, flying dreams, being chased dreams. We have rape dreams, and animal dreams, we have affair dreams, and the emperor has no clothes dreams.

oh dreams appearing!

how like alphabet noodles, swimming in that sodium rich broth

thou art

So we’ve got ‘positive symbols’ on parade. Spontaneous appearances are then lain upon on the altar of sensemaking. The parts of our self that know how to do this, put these symbols together to make meaning of our experience. These parts are, in part, more recently evolved parts of the brain as well as the superhighways of nerves and other pathways that connect brain/heart/ gut/body.

Seems this is how humans move through time- Soupy Story telling. We’re animals, living and evolving at diverse intersections of experience and definition. And for all our evolution it’s a wonder to me that we so often scorn what we are, or attempt to escape and deny ourselves as dreamers of the dream.

Listen, I love to experience shock and surprise as much as the next princess, but it takes me to my knees that so many of the tales we tell (about the tales we tell) are biased towards mockery of self and other, towards sarcasm and skepticism. How boring is it that we teach ourselves and our kin to distrust joy, eros, wonder and especially not making sense?!

ONE GIANT LEAP FOR A MONKEY- Reflections on language and the Origins of Dreaming?

Ever since monkeys made the mysterious leap to apes with language (around 120,000 years ago) EPIC tales are the way of the human. Perhaps it was at this evolutionary point that we began dreaming and imagining. Before then there was no ‘future.’ The future was something ‘born’ of this mysterious evolutionary leap.

Pretty suddenly we could imagine ourselves where we were not now — and simultaneously where we might be. Was that what it was like to experience the first dreams?

anyway… language, images placed in space, dreams- arrived as the stuff our stories are made of. The stories that we tell govern our world, or at least our experience of if. Stories become laws and wars and theme parks. And ‘praise Mickey’, whatever is dreamed of can surely be interpreted in ways that don’t limit appreciation and awe to, “oh, you’re dumb, that’s just capitalism”

The Disney dream definition/ mythos is — A dream is a wish your heart makes, when you’re fast asleep.

I see Disney (not the racist ideations of 1901 born Walt, not bubble wands (though they look great in photos) or mickey pretzels) as a symbol for hope. Hope is probably as human as it gets. It’s at least as human as injustice and obsession with war. In this dream I see collaboration between thousands of artists, between souls, between dreams- all attempting to find an authentic way through the dream as the starting point.

If the idea that dreams that you wish will come true is Magical Thinking, or only Peter Pan syndrome, then what makes “Dreams don’t come true, dammit- that’s horseshit!” more than just its counterpart??

This is what I’ve affectionately come to call Magical Shit Thinking. We see ‘result’ of M.S.T all the time: “ nothing I do has consequence, I’m powerless to affect change. Or, if I’m not criticizing, I’m not helping. How about, I’m not doing enough, or I am doing enough , “It’s my crazy so- called- sovereign life, dammit!” It’s obvious that this can happen on either end of this imaginary magical timeline through…. what ? space… existence… evolution… dreaming?

Humans go hard in battle with ourselves, against the voice that begs us to conform no matter which side of ‘magic’ we’re talking about. We’ve all got a scared lion king dad inside, who wants to keep us out of the scary dark place ‘over there’. And likewise we’ve got a jealous and embittered counterpart, seeking to secure a place in the light for himself. In my estimation, we’re each the monkey- anointed son, with the option to listen to the voices others would usually fight.

Our destiny is the meaning we give to the journey we take. I really don’t mean this as a feel-good platitude. Sure, please increase your tolerance for feeling good; but there is a fair amount of shock and awe and getting the fuck out of your own way in ‘becoming something different than your uncle or dad’s story recycled.

What’s it like to be an embodied dreamer of the dream? What’s the wish your heart makes at the end of the world as you know it? Is it trustworthy?

We go hard against need to suppress ourselves, we project it on each other. you’re THE reason I can’t be myself. The past IS WHY the future won’t work! Culture seems to go against innate curiosity in favor of conformity, and finds ways to seemingly manage the chaos. It’s radical for a moment before it’s for sale on a target tee. (side note: I don’t care where you got your Nirvana shirt, you’re still loved, baby girl). Repression seems to say, just get back to it! Don’t take the time to dream, to develop your craft. And then out the other side of culture’s crooked mouth, like magic! from the infinite pile of magical shit thinking- comes the next reason WHY! The new ultimate reason WHY! The reason you can’t is because you’re anxiously attached, or a narcissistic codependent with imposter syndrome — and here’s a meme about it!

Because as we all know…memes are more real than Disney World.

We get these cultural messages pinging us from our fanny packs or pockets all day : life is really dumb and miserable. Messages that you should or shouldn’t feel shame about the ways you don’t fit. But above all — you have to make sense! If you experience wonder and joy for no reason , you’re likely deluded, or you’re just having a peter pan wet dream and should wake up. After all, there are bad guys and good guys (how Disney is that?) and taxes (hey robin hood) There is also avoiding talking about death or cheating or feelings or awe. We of course allow for some exceptions — the birth of your child or seeing the grand canyon, but that pretty much covers it.

But yeah.. Disney adults are real dummies. If you experience love for no reason, or for the reason of collectible ear headbands, you’re a witless boob who doesn’t know better, but ought to… if you wanna make it in this world.

“ if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything.,” some inner voice retorts.

Wait… is this voice from the HALL OF PRESIDENTS??

anyway it’s a Sunday morning, a few short days after returning home from

My Disney experience™, and I will be your disney dad, or disney step dad if you’ve already got one.

Which Disney Dad are you?

Quiz to come