It’s been a few months since this commentary was shared by my friend Roy H. Williams. However, before this somewhat whimsical, yet containing a real message, from a few months past got lost and forgotten, I’ve got to share it with you!
Roy is known as the Wizard of Ads and co-founder with his wife, Penny, of the Wizard Academy … which sits high on a hilltop outside of Austin, Texas. It is also the home of Chapel Dulcinea. The Chapel is a small open-air chapel sitting on the edge of the hilltop and is likely the most popular wedding location in the world – it is just now celebrating its 20th anniversary.
If you are a regular reader of these Musings, you know about Roy, who has devoted decades to helping small business owners and managers successfully promote and advertise their businesses … and that is what his Monday Morning Memos have long been devoted to. However, over the last couple of years, many of his weekly commentaries have taken a turn, making them far more relevant and meaningful to individuals regardless of age and walk of life.
Please read on!
“Around the swimming beagles, bright stars danced on rippling waters like a thousand little fishes of light scurrying in a sea of darkness.
Can there be a more beautiful sight than when sky meets ocean in the black of night?” The lawyer whispered to himself, the beagles, and the sea as the soft blanket of summer wrapped them all in her warm embrace.
Night is a time of reflection. Not of stars in water only, but of times past and times to come. And such a night was this.”
– Beagles of Destinae, chapter 4
Ideas pour into the dark waters of the unconscious mind, sparkling like reflected stars. As above, so below. The natives always said it was so.
But as Gemini sat on the throne of Aquarius, a dragonfish was born. And thus our story begins.
The twins did not mean to unleash a dragonfish, but they had never promised not to, either. And besides, a dragonfish is an adventure.
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea,
and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.
Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff,
And brought him strings, and sealing wax, and other fancy stuff.
Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail,
Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puff’s gigantic tail.
Noble kings and princes would bow whenever they came,
Pirate ships would lower their flags when Puff roared out his name.
A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys,
Painted wings and giant’s rings make way for other toys.
One gray night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more,
And Puff, that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.
“Puff the Magic Dragon” with lyrics by Leonard Lipton and music by Peter Yarrow appears on the 1963 Peter, Paul and Mary album, “Moving.” An urban myth soon arose that the song was about drugs. It’s really a backward look at childhood, and all that was left behind.
“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart. All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“He saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. When He had stopped speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’”
– Luke, ch. 5
The book “Peter Pan” was written only after the 1904 play became a huge success.
On opening night, Mrs. Snow spoke to the playwright and author, J.M. Barrie about her late husband…
“And he would so have loved this evening. The pirates, and the Indians; he was really just a boy himself, you know, to the very end. I suppose it’s all the work of the ticking crocodile, isn’t it? Time is chasing after all of us. Isn’t that right?”
“It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old; they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”
– Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“The secret of The Muppets is they re not very good at what they do. Kermit’s not a great host, Fozzie’s not a good comedian, Miss Piggy’s not a great singer… Like, none of them are actually good at it, but they love it. They’re like a family, and they like putting on the show. And they have joy. And because of the joy, it doesn’t matter that they’re not good at it. That’s what we should all be. Muppets.”
– Brett Goldstein
“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust…
If growing up means it would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree, I’ll never grow up.”
– Peter Pan, by JM Barrie
In 1909, five years after the play “Peter Pan” was a huge success, ‘Goat’ Fowler decided to name his playful acapella musical group at Yale University after a mythical dragonfish named Whiffenpoof. The group has continued for the past 116 years.
And He said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter into heaven.”
– Matthew, ch. 18
It is important that we retain childlike qualities.
~ Roy H. Williams
Now that you’ve read, what comment might you share with either Roy (I will forward to him) and/or yours truly?
Thank you!
