The Truth in Peter Pan and the Little Matchgirl

Before Peter Pan was given life, magic powers, and immortality by J.M. Barrie, he was probably an infant left out in the London cold, exposed, and froze to death. But an author, and countless readers and then later re-tellers of the story and re-listeners have made Peter Pan a cultural hero with the powers of a god. He is a lot like many deities and spirits and of course the fairies that raised him who existed long before him.
Children mostly focus on his powers of immortality and flight, and where he lives, Neverland, a magical place outside heaven. But it is important to remember his powers in death. Peter Pan's job, is that he dies, part of the way, with any child that dies, so that they won't be afraid. He is an angel, but all the more realistic because he is that rascal child of an angel that dies part way, but not all the way, and in a lot of ways, his immortality, his living, with the lost boys, is living for those children that have died. Even with all of our medicine and wealth, children still do die every day, even in America, even among the wealthy. It is a tragedy that happens, and every time we hear about it, don't we  for a moment die part way? That is one way of putting it. Another way is that our feel empathy with the parents and the child.

Peter Pan, a child that does not ever die, and never grows up, but also, knows about that pain because he dies part way with every child that dies, is a very powerful idea, and spirit.

Hans Christian Anderson, also had many stories to deal with this. The Little Match girl is one of the most heart wrenching and difficult stories to forget. It is short. Just read it.

For Hans, the escape was Heaven.
Also for Eric Clapton who wrote about his own child in Tears in Heaven.


Whether it be Heaven or Neverland, or your own version of these places (which are different places) these things are important to believe in. And it is important that we create these places in our minds, our stories, our dreams, songs, and ideas. There is nothing wrong with living in a fantasy world, because in a lot of ways that Fantasy may hold truths that our experience of reality does not. After all our experience of reality is that the sun rises and sets and that time flows like a steady river. But Science and Mathematics tell us that tell us that is not the case at all. The earth spins, (though that is not what we experience unless you are an astronaut currently in orbit)  and the speed of light is constant where as time fluctuates and is not separate from space. So every moment, or point in Space-time, is eternal.

How do you deal with the death of a child? I cannot imagine anything more terrible. And entering an aletrnate reality, a fantasy of belief and faith and pretend, is important. There is nothing wrong with part of staying in that place, throughout the day, so long as you can get everything in the real world done. In fact Religion, is exactly that. Playing pretend really hard together, and creating a True reality, while at the same time, staying organized and functioning in life. Many of scientists were religious, and many people pushing for social change and fighting for the care of our environment and for the rights and well being of fellow human beings are both religious (or believe in a higher being), and either Scientifically literate or perhaps even Scientists.

Working through creativity and stories and art, is not hiding from your suffering. In fact, it will help you face those tragedies.

Authors can do this for us. They create worlds, lives and souls. And when they spread their stories they help those of us who need help creating these worlds, and we help them by making these places of Thought, that much more real, by existing in more hearts and minds.

At my middle School, Nativity Prep, we prayed a lot, and we also did a lot of real work.
I was not a Christian back then, and I didn't like all the prayers at the time. What I did like was morning assembly prayer. We would all line up, standing there, much like an army (as Nativity was run by the Jesuits) there were announcements and then people would raise their hands for people or things to prayer for. We would all then say, "Lord Hear Our Prayer."  together as one unit. And that made us feel strong, while we were praying for those of use who were very vulnerable. We don't feel alone and we feel much stronger when we say things together as a WE and an US rather than trying to face things alone. It helps to think of ourselves as We even if we are alone. And in a way, even when we are alone, we are never really alone.


Let' Pray for Author Joyce Wan and her daughter who went to Heaven last night and for her husband that they may get through this time of suffering.


Lord Hear Our Prayer.