Something to Think About

Day 2: Second Star to the Right and Straight on 'til Morning

dedicated to haleyinneverland with her fan fiction "peter and wendy 》taekook" for her positive outlook on the quick fleetingness of human life

Peter Pan is one of my favorite movies of all times. The story goes that there is a little boy by the name of Peter Pan who lives with the fairies. He never grows up, and he sometimes goes with the spirit of a dead child halfway, so they might not be scared. According to Disney, Peter lost his shadow while playing with his fairy friend, Tinker Bell, and when he went to look for it he met Wendy and her brothers, John and Michael. He took an instant liking to them and brought them to Neverland. They went on many adventures together, until they defeated Captain Hook and the three children went home. The movie, of course, is much more interesting than just this, but I do not have the time to explain the entire movie. There is too much to explain, anyway. 

haleyinneverland gave me the idea that Peter Pan may not be so carefree. Even though her's was a fan fiction story that involved Kim Taehyung (V) and Jeon Jungkook from BTS, it's still loosely based on the original. This got me thinking: does the young boy who never grows up represent something? A guide, perhaps? I think Peter Pan could quite possibly represent a guide for children's souls. There are several points that prove this. 

First of all, he is forever a child. Peter Pan himself said that he will never grow up. A child's soul, scared and alone and dead, will not react well to a grown-up wearing a long black cloak and holding a scythe (the Grim Reaper is for horror movie fanatics who died trying to videotape a "mutated" cat). That's pretty obvious. However, children do react well to children their own age, or perhaps a little older. Peter Pan would look like an older sibling to little children, and they would connect with him better due to a smaller gap in age. This would make Death's guide's job easier, because the child would trust him and they could go on their way easily. 

Death isn't very scary, either. Although most people are scared of death, I feel like death isn't such a bad thing to be scared of. Albus Dumbledore once said that "Death is but the next great adventure." Perhaps death is playful, for the kids that believe it is so. Kids believe a lot of things that adults don't believe in. Whether it's because of their mindset or the fact that reality hasn't quite gotten a firm grip yet I do not know, but it sure is a great advantage. 

A lot of writers like to talk about death. I find it strange that they write so much about it, dissecting it in all angles as they would do with emotions or people, when I feel like death isn't that dimensional. It's not that hard to understand death; it just means that you're not part of the plane we call alive. But it doesn't have to be so complicated. Maybe it's complex because we associate so many emotions with death, and emotions are complicated because people are complicated.

But as kids, most things are not so complicated. It's hard to understand complex things, so we tend to oversimplify things. This isn't always a good thing, like with stereotyping, but it's healthy, to oversimplify death, I think. Death is just death; we could spend hours thinking about it, but never understand what it is. It's useless to try, because we can't ask people who've died what dying is like, and we won't ever find out what dying is like unless we die. It's like a paradox. The simplest example of a paradox is "I am nobody." It's impossible to be nobody if you are, because if you are someone then you aren't nobody. 

See? Even I'm getting myself confused now. Death shouldn't be so complicated. It comes and goes like a dog, and if we keep trying to track where the dog goes we'll die without ever accomplishing anything else. I think Peter Pan thinks in this way, except that he will never die. He just goes about his day, having fun and bringing the lost boys to Neverland. Kids don't worry about death, and they've got someone like Peter Pan to show them how it works. But you don't have to be a child to know Peter Pan. The way I see it, Peter Pan will help anyone who needs him. He isn't just a guide for children's souls; if you have the mindset and the heart of a child, Peter Pan won't discriminate you for your age. 

Ramblings about death and shenanigans. This took a completely different turn from where I'd started, but there was such a long gap that I just sort of went for it, f*ck the consequences.

Author's Note: Video is not mine! Belongs to the original poster on Youtube.