Trainer Tom: The place Utopia Exists
Rising up, it was uncommon to have watched any film greater than as soon as, aside from The Wizard of Oz, which was yearly broadcast on CBS, like a vacation occasion, all through my childhood. The exception to that for me was the film The Swiss Household Robinson, which I noticed no less than 3 times on broadcast tv throughout my childhood.
I liked all the things about that film: a household shipwrecked on a distant, unpopulated, South Pacific island, who created a type of utopia. They lived in an impressive treehouse, performed video games with the native fauna, and cleverly used the native flora to not solely survive, however thrive. It was good. Not solely was the household lovingly collectively, however that they had managed to find joyful freedom and concord each with each other and the world round them. Sure, there was an episode when pirates threatened, however the worst factor that occurred was that, in the long run, they have been “rescued.” To at the present time, I ponder how anybody who had created such a beautiful place, such a peaceable, joyful way of life with nothing however solar, enjoyable, and love, may wish to return to the hum-drum work-a-day world of faculty, guidelines, and correct clothes.
However that is utopia for you. Even in our fiction, we will not hold dwelling there.
In fact, I did not perceive it on the time, however I do know now that we create utopias, nirvanas, and heavens, not as locations, however as directional arrows. There’ll all the time be ache and struggling, no less than on this world. Individuals who have survived actual life shipwrecks do not construct great treehouses, however somewhat scrimp and scrap and barely get by. Usually they die. Historical past is filled with tales of utopia communities that both imploded, or developed into, at greatest, hum-drum work-a-day worlds of faculties, guidelines, and correct clothes.
I just lately spent a pair days at a preschool in Florida the place I noticed lecture rooms and interacted with each educators and youngsters. The older youngsters, specifically, remembered me from an earlier go to. They performed with me, climbed on my lap, held my hand, made area for me at circle time, and usually included me in all the things they did. It was like a reunion of outdated associates. Once I left their classroom to go elsewhere, they made me promise to come back again.
That temporary time I spent with them was, certainly, utopia. Fleeting maybe, however actual however. Huge, systemic utopia could also be past us, however these small ones, these moments when ache and struggling disappear, when college, guidelines, and correct clothes do not matter, are the precise article. Utopias may be created on desert islands. They may also be created in colleges, properties, and wherever that people are collectively. Perhaps a few of you skilled this throughout yesterday’s Thanksgiving Day celebrations.
As I used to be leaving on the finish of the day, I stated goodbye to one of many youngsters who had created utopia with and for me. “Oh, there you’re,” she stated, as if she had been on the lookout for me, “I made this for you.” She handed me a chunk of paper that she had folded right into a card. On all 4 pages, she had drawn hearts in a rainbow of colours.
That is the one place utopia exists exterior of our hopes and dream, in these small moments of human kindness and connection. And that’s greater than sufficient.
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