Sunday, January 2, 2011

The Planet of Jack



The Planet of Jack:


Jack, my 10 year old, has spent winter break at Hogwarts, Mount Olympus and on the imaginary stages of Auditoriums across the nation. When Jack is into something he is totally there mind, body and imagination. I love how his mind works and how it saturates all things. He has been reading, watching and playing Harry Potter for most of the break. He has researched wands on-line and found a wand maker website and then proceeded with gps missile guided accuracy found the only rosewood wand on sale. We have ordered his wand from Alivans and he checks the mail and watches the sky for owls. He and his friends across the street, Meredith’s daughter Olivia and now her step-sister and step-brother Helena and Thomas, have spent more than 3 days running around the neighborhoods in robes, scarves and wands, dueling and battling evil. He has made his own potter puppet pals and written scripts for his performances. He recorded them on the photobooth and flip camera and has performed for us in the front room.  He confided in me last night, as I was putting him to bed, how nervous he was for his 11th birthday and how he was not sure he was ready to go to a boarding school even if he got an invite from Hagrid. I nodded and reassured him if he was going to be asked he would be ready. I marvel at how his mind works and how fully engaged he is in imagination and creativity. I marvel at his wonderment and gleeful play. I hope even as he grows, he never loses his creativity or full engagement of his activities, work and play.  I know someday that Peter Pan Jack and the planet of Jack may dim because life beats a bit of the wonderment and joy out of it but I am hoping for a little time longer I can continue to visit the planet of Jack because it seems like an amazing place and I would be all too sad to see it disappear from my world. 

5 comments:

  1. That's beautiful, Ann. Keep the wonder alive! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Reina: Both of my boys have been frequent visitors to Never Never Land. It has dimmed on my eldest but Jack seems to be holding on to the imagination just a bit longer. Somedays I wish I could spend more of my time there. Ann

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jack sounds like my Claire when she was that age. Do you think Planet Jack would be able to accommodate another visitor? I would love to visit this amazing place.

    It makes me sad that so many children these days have no time nor are they encouraged to use/engage their imagination. The world will be a poorer place because of the lack of this.

    "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

    Albert Einstein

    ReplyDelete
  4. Some how claire's name keeps coming up--this is really me--debs pokos dugan

    ReplyDelete
  5. LOL The best part of childhood is escape and imagination. I would have been so sad to have children who could not flex that muscle.

    ReplyDelete