Month: August 2018

Silly Joke Friday

Silly Joke #1

There was this haunted house on the outskirts of the town which was avoided by all the townsfolk – the ghost which `lived’ there was feared by all.However, an enterprising journalist decided to get the scoop of the day by photographing the fearsome phantom. When he entered the house, armed with only his camera, the ghost descended upon him, clanking chains et al. He told the ghost “I mean no harm – I just want your photograph”. The ghost was quite happy at this chance to make the headlines – he posed for a number of ghostly shots. The happy journalist rushed back to his dark room, and began developing the photos. Unfortunately, they turned out to be black and underexposed. So, what’s the moral of this story? The spirit was willing but the flash was weak.

Silly Joke #2

After many years of marriage, a husband has turned into a couch potato, became completely inattentive to his wife and sat guzzling beer and watching TV all day. The wife was dismayed because no matter what she did to attract the husband’s attention, he’d just shrug her off with some bored comment. This went on for many months and the wife was going crazy with boredom.Then one day at a pet store, the wife saw this big, ugly, snorting bird with a hairy chest, powerful hairy forearms, beady eyes and dribble running down the side of its mouth. The shopkeeper, observing her fascination with the bird, told her it was a special imported “Goony bird” and it had a very peculiar trait. To demonstrate, he exclaimed, “Goony bird! The table!” Immediately, the Goony bird flew off its perch and with single-minded fury attacked the table and smashed it into a hundred little pieces with its powerful forearms and claws! To demonstrate some more, the shopkeeper said, “Goony bird! The shelf!” Again, the Goony bird turned to the shelf and demolished it in seconds. “Wow!” said the wife, “If this doesn’t attract my husband’s attention, nothing will!” So, she bought the bird and took it home. When she entered the house, the husband was, as usual, sprawled on the sofa guzzling beer and watching the game. “Honey!” she exclaimed, “I’ve got a surprise for you! A Goony bird!”The husband, in his usual bored tone replied, “Goony Bird, my ass!”

Silly Joke #3

An old woman was sipping on a glass of wine, while sitting on the patio with her husband, and she says, “I love you so much, I don’t know how I could ever live without you”…Her husband asks, “Is that you, or the wine talking? She replies, “It’s me…talking to the wine.”

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

“Christopher Robin”, An Endearing Film That’s All About Rediscovering Your Inner Child

While I only have a few vague memories of reading, watching, or playing with Winnie-The-Pooh and Friends as a kid, I still headed to the theater last week on opening night to see the new Disney film, “Christopher Robin” for one reason and one reason only, to appease the inner child in me.

Most of us in this world don’t appease our inner child whatsoever and few do so on a regular basis. Rather, we’re brought up to wear our “big boy” or “big girl” pants and leave that kid in us behind. Sadly, because of that, the things that once brought light and joy to our very souls are left behind as well. This is the very premise of “Christopher Robin”, which stars Ewan McGregor as the titular character in his adult years. While the beginning of the film quickly chronicles how Christopher came to meet Pooh and his friends and shows how he spent much of his early childhood playing with them, it also shows how life circumstances led to him letting them go and ultimately forgetting about them altogether in the process.

That is until one day, many years later, Pooh can’t find any of his friends in the Hundred-Acre-Wood where they all live. In his nervous search for them, he comes to the very door at the base of the huge tree where Christopher Robin once came and went, day after day, to spend with him. Suddenly, the door swings open for the first time in a very long time, longer than Pooh can remember, causing him to decide to enter it with one purpose, find Christopher Robin who can hopefully help him find his woodsy companions.

When the passage behind the door magically transports him to the very park outside Christopher’s home, it’s inevitable the two are going to meet through happenstance and when they do, it doesn’t take long for Pooh to see that Christopher has lost sight of their special relationship they once shared. Instead, he sees Christopher Robin has become totally consumed with his job, a job that has even caused him to completely neglect his wife and daughter as well, so much so, that they went on their holiday without him.

Unfortunately for Christopher Robin, he doesn’t see any of this and instead tries to quickly usher Pooh back into the tree from which he emerged after such a very short visit, hoping to swiftly return to the work he’s become so consumed with. But, when they both realize the door in the tree has vanished, what begins as a quest to return Pooh home, actually turns out to be an adventure of Christopher Robin rediscovering the very kid he left behind so long ago.

“Christopher Robin” is such an endearing film. It truly warmed my heart and brought out the kid in me quite a number of times throughout its running time. Thankfully, I learned many years ago how important it is to never lose sight of that part of me, that inner child. Deep down inside each and every one of us is still a little boy or girl who desperately wants to play from time to time and totally forget about the stressors of life. But, far too many of us never do that because we got told at some point to grow up and remain that way. Because of this, life often tends to become miserable and mundane.

We go to work to earn a living to pay the bills to support ourselves and our families and somewhere along the way, that little kid in each of us is left in a corner crying, desperate for attention. I have personally made sure though to always do my best to embrace that kid in me nowadays and never let him return to that corner in tears again, which is precisely why I regularly go play miniature golf, or tell silly jokes, or make goofy faces, or eat sundaes with tons of toppings, or watch superhero cartoons, or play Ms. Pac Man and Galaga, or do a number of other things as well. Because I know how important it is to appease that kid in me and how sad my life felt for all the times I did not.

So, if you are someone who isn’t spending much time or no time at all with your inner child these days and have very little relationship with that kid in yourself, maybe you should go see Disney’s “Christopher Robin” as well, as perhaps then you too will begin to remember someone you left behind long ago, who’s desperately been wanting to regain your love and attention…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson