I just got back from another trip to Disneyland - this time I took my dad. It was the first time he’d been in 20 years. I was expecting the same fireworks show I’d seen just two weeks beforehand. Instead, they had a Dumbo segment and played Baby Mine, which is a song that comes close to tearing my heart right out of my chest every time I hear it. Then, at the song’s emotional climax, Dumbo appeared in the sky and flew over Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. I nearly burst into tears because it was so fucking magical. And I gasped and yelled, “IT’S DUMBO!” in my surprise, louder than any child around me. I had to make a concentrated effort not to openly weep with emotion the remainder of the fireworks display.
I am not an overly emotional person. Anyone who knows me well would tell you that. But there was something genuinely touching about that moment. At 27, I was able to fully experience the same sense of wonder I’d felt at Disneyland as a child and it was amazing. It really was. It wasn’t having a memory or sense of nostalgia of having felt that once; it was the whole, complete feeling in the present moment. It made me wonder how children deal with those kinds of feelings all the time. No wonder we lose it at some point. Frankly, it would be too difficult to live in the world like some kind of raw nerve trunk with legs. But it was nice to have it back for 10 minutes.
You guys, Disneyland just fucking works.
