I'm A Dreamer - What About You?

Today we went to see the movie Narnia. It was excellent and I can't say enough about the computer animated animals in this film. The art has been perfected in this except for maybe the beavers but the cheetahs, lion, birds of prey, etc were excellent and I truly believed that they all existed.

I have never read the book The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and in a way I am happy for it.

Watching the movie today I was hit again with the wish that such adventures could have happened to me as a child, teen or even as an adult. I'm not sure about other people but maybe it is common among readers and here is where you can tell me if you are like me in this or not.

I saw Star Wars when I was seven years old and in my mind I lived in the world that was created for many years. Even though I was young I knew that I would never ride in an X-Wing fighter or meet a wookie. I was certainly never going to be a princess because you had to be born one and well, I wasn't. Even though I wished to be able to live in the world created I knew that the world didn't exist (at least, not that *we* know of).

I am a person who has lived in her head for most of her life.

Seeing Narnia made me yearn to be the young girl Lucy in the story and there is a bittersweet sadness in knowing that I never will be. I will never fight along centaurs or woodland creatures against an evil that is easily quantified and identified. I won't be a hero to a world or a person of great wisdom that others turn to when things go wrong.

I won't be free of reality unless I create a world in my head and I do. I remember meeting a woman in university who had mentioned being able to create a world in her mind but that she taught herself to stop it because it was detrimental to reality. She said it was part of becoming an adult. I didn't get it. Why would you stop something that took you to another time and place?

Now don't get me wrong. I am far too grounded to ever confuse reality with fantasy. Reality bites me in the ass more times than I can count so the other world is a place where I can't get bitten. At least, as long as I can stay there which normally isn't long because it is where I go just before sleep. All the same, the other place can get boring as hell if I don't muck it up a bit ;) so reality can be placed in there at every turn.

So here is the question for today. Can you create a world in your mind? Do you still visit it or is it no longer a part of your life because you are an adult? Can seeing a movie like Lord of the Rings or Narnia make you long to live in such a place or to at least, experience it. Some might suggest that reading it makes you experience it but I think I want the real experience.

I want to be the one to find the world inside the wardrobe.