Disney People

Have you ever known someone who can be best described by the things that they are into? You know, people who are so sold out on a product, company or ideology that they almost completely embody it? For example, let's examine "Coffee People". These are people who literally cannot function until they have their first cup of coffee (and it's never just coffee - it's always a "cuppa coffee," as if the coffee cannot exist in this dimension without the metaphysical tether of the cuppa). They will make you sit and wait for them to finish their cuppa coffee every time you eat with them because it would be unthinkable to leave even a drop undrunk (that's right, undrunk). You may be choking on a bagel, and they will perform the Heimlich maneuver on you, but only after they've finished savoring their cuppa coffee. If you are a coffee person and this characterization has offended you in any way, I'll buy you a cuppa coffee to make up for it; but let's be honest - you know it's true.

There are also "Disney People". Every annual vacation is spent at Disney World. A map of the parks is not necessary because it has been committed to memory. They wear Mickey boxers, briefs, boxer briefs and speedos. They get teary eyed when they watch Beauty and the Beast, and can't get through Finding Nemo without a full box of moisturized Kleenex (with soothing lotion for their Mickey Mouse noses). When they get into tough situations they ask themselves, "What would Walt do," because they have have accepted Disney into their hearts.

I am not a Disney person. Never have been. I went for the first time when I was 19, so I think the magic was lost on my jaded, incredibly mature adult mind (since everyone knows that when you are 19 you are incredibly mature and know everything). I enjoyed the thrill rides, but never really got the Disney magic that my wife goes on and on about. Disney had me in their clutches, and I left unchanged. But recently I've had a change of heart.

Three weeks ago, Terri's dad and step-mom treated our whole family to a Disney World trip. As a dad, I had the chance to experience Disney through the eyes of my children. To me, parks are all about the rides, but my kids just wanted to meet the characters. In fact, they waited hours to get character autographs and pictures. We waited for over a half an hour just for Pluto, and when I asked Calvin if he would rather ride rides, he said, "I'm not leaving until I have Pluto's autograph!" My daughter Cameron*, when asked about the trip, will gladly volunteer that, "we waited for over an hour to see the princesses and it was totally worth it!" I rode It's a Small World three times! Why? Because they loved it. They loved all of it. And you know what? I did too. Not because everything was so much better than the last time I was there, but because their enthusiasm got ahold of me. I loved it because they did. The magic of our Disney trip was not in the amazing quality of the parks (they ARE amazing), or the emotional stories of the characters. The magic already existed in my kids, and I got to see it come out in all it's loud, bright and amazing glory.

Am I a Disney Person now? I don't really know. I'm a "Cameron, Trinity and Calvin" person, and if that means I've given myself over to Disney, then maybe so.

*Cameron read this post over my shoulder and asked that I make sure everyone knows that she IS a Disney Person.