Wisdom and Mary Poppins...
One summer, I worked as a summer camp counselor at Indiana University's family camp, Shawnee Bluffs. I was 18 going on 19, a rising sophomore in college who didn't know which end was up in the world Camp seemed like a good job.
I'd done camp. I'd been a Girl Scout summer camper all my life. Two of my three sisters had been camp counselors. Why not? Of course, alumni family camp is a FAR CRY from Girl Scout camp, but another day for that...
I'd spent a lot of time babysitting. I had spent hours upon days upon weeks tending my nieces and nephews. I had a life full of songs and stories in my back pocket. I had games to spare. I could make just about any down time fun. Which is helpful when you are a camp counselor. Because downtime happens between each camp adventure...and the job is to keep everyone moving forward all day long.
It was there at Shawnee Bluffs that I became Mary Poppins. It started with my fellow counselors who marveled at the repertoire of songs for every occasion. For hiking, for waiting while everyone got dressed at the pool, for waiting for the van so we could water ski, for keeping little hands and mouths busy while someone set the archery range. Or for when someone stomped on a yellow jacket nest, got stung multiple times and was inconsolable. Or when all the 5 and 6 year olds were freaked out by the inconsolable stung-multiple-times kid. (Again, a story for another day...)
In the midst of the peer pressure of college co-eds who were all working on their co-ed tans and flirting after hours and between sessions, sipping on the dregs of the keg after the camp families settled down for the night, being dubbed Mary Poppins wasn't remotely cool. I mean, Mary Poppins was cool - as in aloof, uptight, sometimes harsh...right?
At the same time, there was something about the identity that was privately comfortable.
Mary Poppins was the first movie I remember seeing in the movie theater. The Lans, in Lansing, is listed as a "cinema treasure" now. A whole role of Sweet Tarts or Spree was only $.25 (it says something that my keyboard doesn't even have a cents sign, right?). The theater was always dark and cool...I'm pretty sure I went to a matinee. With a sister. Or maybe my mom.
I also read the original books by PL Travers...four of them, a set. In fabric board binding, each a slightly different muted "used book" color. Stitched binding sections, thick paper pages. I read them again and again, because that was how I consumed books. By the time I was 8 I understood that the Disney movie version was a stitched together version of something from many if not all of the books.
Mary Poppins had practical magic.
She made hard things palatable.
She made mysterious things real.
She believed the impossible was possible with the right attitude.
She didn't always know the whole path, but she knew the next step.
During a week of retreat for our anniversary, Matt and I set aside a rainy afternoon to see Mary Poppins Returns...a Disney refashioning of the cast of iconic characters. It is a good story in classic Disney writing style. They work hard to give a nod to the work of Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. There is the iconic mix of live action and animation. But this is not a movie review.
I was stunned by how I felt about watching the character Mary Poppins return. Forty years later, I was still breathless at the idea of her emerging through the clouds, umbrella aloft. I might have shed a tear.
You see, Mary Poppins is still herself. And my forty years of life experience has a new understanding of the complexity of the role she played in the fiction written around her.
Mary Poppins embodies wisdom.
And in the midst of the wild ups and downs of life, I have come to appreciate the role that wisdom plays in seeing the world unfold and responding well. As a student of theology, I have respect for the role of wisdom in so many faith traditions. But mostly, I know that wisdom has come with experiences hard and joyful, expected and shocking. Good things happen and bad things happen and God goes on and on. And wisdom accumulates - like wrinkles and grey hair, laugh lines and fairy sparkles - wisdom builds as life marches on. So of course in her return, Mary Poppins was bringing even more wisdom with her.
In some ways, just as I wanted to embrace the label at 19, I want to embrace the label at 49. I want to be Mary Poppins. Because I believe her inner voice is at the root of my mom's desire to "keep them safe, help them grow strong, surround them with good people, help them find joy." I believe her inner voice is the underpinning of my joy in calling folks Beloved of God. I believe her inner voice keeps me showing up in hard things with people who need to see love in action.
Spoiler alert.
That tuppence safely invested in the bank so many years ago has compounded and grown.
I'd done camp. I'd been a Girl Scout summer camper all my life. Two of my three sisters had been camp counselors. Why not? Of course, alumni family camp is a FAR CRY from Girl Scout camp, but another day for that...
I'd spent a lot of time babysitting. I had spent hours upon days upon weeks tending my nieces and nephews. I had a life full of songs and stories in my back pocket. I had games to spare. I could make just about any down time fun. Which is helpful when you are a camp counselor. Because downtime happens between each camp adventure...and the job is to keep everyone moving forward all day long.
It was there at Shawnee Bluffs that I became Mary Poppins. It started with my fellow counselors who marveled at the repertoire of songs for every occasion. For hiking, for waiting while everyone got dressed at the pool, for waiting for the van so we could water ski, for keeping little hands and mouths busy while someone set the archery range. Or for when someone stomped on a yellow jacket nest, got stung multiple times and was inconsolable. Or when all the 5 and 6 year olds were freaked out by the inconsolable stung-multiple-times kid. (Again, a story for another day...)
In the midst of the peer pressure of college co-eds who were all working on their co-ed tans and flirting after hours and between sessions, sipping on the dregs of the keg after the camp families settled down for the night, being dubbed Mary Poppins wasn't remotely cool. I mean, Mary Poppins was cool - as in aloof, uptight, sometimes harsh...right?
At the same time, there was something about the identity that was privately comfortable.
Mary Poppins was the first movie I remember seeing in the movie theater. The Lans, in Lansing, is listed as a "cinema treasure" now. A whole role of Sweet Tarts or Spree was only $.25 (it says something that my keyboard doesn't even have a cents sign, right?). The theater was always dark and cool...I'm pretty sure I went to a matinee. With a sister. Or maybe my mom.
I also read the original books by PL Travers...four of them, a set. In fabric board binding, each a slightly different muted "used book" color. Stitched binding sections, thick paper pages. I read them again and again, because that was how I consumed books. By the time I was 8 I understood that the Disney movie version was a stitched together version of something from many if not all of the books.
Mary Poppins had practical magic.
She made hard things palatable.
She made mysterious things real.
She believed the impossible was possible with the right attitude.
She didn't always know the whole path, but she knew the next step.
During a week of retreat for our anniversary, Matt and I set aside a rainy afternoon to see Mary Poppins Returns...a Disney refashioning of the cast of iconic characters. It is a good story in classic Disney writing style. They work hard to give a nod to the work of Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. There is the iconic mix of live action and animation. But this is not a movie review.
I was stunned by how I felt about watching the character Mary Poppins return. Forty years later, I was still breathless at the idea of her emerging through the clouds, umbrella aloft. I might have shed a tear.
You see, Mary Poppins is still herself. And my forty years of life experience has a new understanding of the complexity of the role she played in the fiction written around her.
Mary Poppins embodies wisdom.
And in the midst of the wild ups and downs of life, I have come to appreciate the role that wisdom plays in seeing the world unfold and responding well. As a student of theology, I have respect for the role of wisdom in so many faith traditions. But mostly, I know that wisdom has come with experiences hard and joyful, expected and shocking. Good things happen and bad things happen and God goes on and on. And wisdom accumulates - like wrinkles and grey hair, laugh lines and fairy sparkles - wisdom builds as life marches on. So of course in her return, Mary Poppins was bringing even more wisdom with her.
In some ways, just as I wanted to embrace the label at 19, I want to embrace the label at 49. I want to be Mary Poppins. Because I believe her inner voice is at the root of my mom's desire to "keep them safe, help them grow strong, surround them with good people, help them find joy." I believe her inner voice is the underpinning of my joy in calling folks Beloved of God. I believe her inner voice keeps me showing up in hard things with people who need to see love in action.
Spoiler alert.
That tuppence safely invested in the bank so many years ago has compounded and grown.
If you invest your tuppence
Wisely in the bank
Safe and sound
Soon that tuppence,
Safely invested in the bank,
Will compound...
Another thing compounds. Wisdom compounds. More valuable than gold.
How much better to get wisdom than gold!
To get
understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
(Proverbs 16:16, NRSV)
Here's to the return...
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