Peter pan and the Power of Belief

Peter Pan and the power of belief

Went to see Peter pan tonight. Was not really keen on spending two hours with 4 children going ooh and aah over a flying boy. Peter Pan- the boy who never grew up. Once we arrived at the theatre, I saw so many adults and about 40% without children. I wondered why the adults were queuing to buy tickets to a fairytale about a boy who refused to grow up. Once inside I was transported into the fairytale. It made me realize that it was more than a story about a boy who never grew up. It was an amazing story about the power of belief.
The power of belief somehow diminishes as we grow up. Since childhood we are told so many stories, so many fairytales, so many folktales that we get lost and don’t know what to believe anymore . Doubt takes the place of belief and we start questioning our own actions. We start second guessing and cross guessing and start losing hope and faith.
There was a scene in the play where John, the older brother says he does not believe in fairies and as soon as he says that the little fairy starts disappearing. Taking their cue, all the pirates start shouting how they don’t believe in fairies and one by one all the fairies start to disappear. It is so simple yet so profound. Faith and belief are the panacea , if we lose the faith and stop believing we will pretty much kill all hope. And what is life without hope and faith? That is exactly what most of us do.
Every once in a while we should let the Peter Pan in each of us go for a flight and come back rejuvenated.
The first step towards renewal and regeneration is to become a child writes mythologist Joseph Campbell.
In the Greek Askiepian temple when people go for any kind of healing, they are first clothed in white linen and wrapped like a child in swaddling clothes. This is to regress them into child like stage that is free of doubt and full of hope and belief.
An Araki physician wrote. “ The medicine of the soul is the medicine of the body” and that medicine is belief and faith. When Peter Pan overpowers Captain Hook and forces him and his cronies to shout that they believe in fairies , the fairies start reviving and one by one they all come back to life. So even if the adult in us has lost all hope, its never too late to find the child in us to find that hope and belief. Too often we let society dictate our life. We feel obliged to do things a certain way because that is the norm. For once do what your inner child wants you to do and let the miracle of faith and belief revive the fairies in you.
Plant the tiny mustard seed of hope and let it flourish into a whole field.
Luv/luck/happiness