I was going to write about Toy Story 3, then I was going to write something nice about my old man on Father's Day...then I was going to write something about the one year anniversary of Michael Jackson's death. I just haven't really had the time. At least that's what I tell myself in my head.
I guess that's what all grown folks tell themselves. It's a cop out for sure. We have time, we have all the time in the world. As kids we looked at time as something relative, we were more like prehistoric man in that regard. When the sun came out our day began, when it was setting it was time to start biking toward home. When the ten o'clock news theme song was playing, it was time for bed, simple really.
That's when I got to thinking how can I string all three entries together, and it was right there in front of my face.
The other day the goofy film Step Brothers was on HBO. The one where Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly basically play themselves, if they were stepbrothers. I only caught bits of pieces of it but one part that stood out was when Richard Jenkins' character, the "regular" sort of Dad, tells a story about how his own father used to yell at him to stop pretending to be a dinosaur because it's childish and stupid (even though I think he was like seven at the time) and concern himself with becoming a doctor. Of course in the end Jenkins' character resented that and told his own son and stepson to never "lose their dinosaur".
There's a sea of fond memories of my own Father from when I was a kid, the one that pertains to this though was his encouragement to be a kid, be scared, act goofy.
"Don't go down in the crawl space" not because the steps were rickety and dangerous but because there was an old Gila Monster down there that he found at college and brought home with him. My childhood was filled with tales like that, countless nights of driving home from restaurants or movies and hearing the legend of the Jersey Devil and how my dad once tape recorded his snarl back in the seventies on a hunting trip.
My old man has well known love of dancing and a little known admiration of science fiction and besides The Land in Epcot Center (google it), I believe his favorite part of Disney World back in the day was Captain Eo, starring the King of Pop himself. As nothing other then a spaceship captain that teaches a post apocalyptic world to love one another. How does he do this? Through some smooth ass dance moves of course.
Michael Jackson was another person who inspired me and most of my generation to dream. Forget the fact that his music is still to this day incredibly awesome, his videos are classic and he may be the greatest performer in music history. His Thriller video was etched into the fabric our childhood. It was a central part of my Halloweens, the "making of" VHS was as common in our household as Eggo waffles and Windex.
I've read about the "phenomenon" of grown men crying or at least getting choked up during Toy Story 3. Is it really that hard to believe? The film perfectly captures the feeling that myself and most other guys go through at some point. It's not necessarily the feeling of giving up our toys (although that sucks too) but it's more the feeling of growing up, losing our dinosaurs (in the movie Andy literally does lose his, Rex)
Michael Jackson didn't want to lose a childhood that he didn't get to experience the first time around and in the later part of his career was crucified for things that were never proven and ultimately painted as come grotesque monster by some.
My parents allowed me to be a kid for as long as I wanted and to this day my Wife allows me to be a grown ass kid. We are to the age now where we are talking seriously about children of our own. Children that will be encouraged to dream, inspired to imagine.
Children that will never be told to lose their dinosaurs.
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