Keep Pretending, Keep Believing..

The sky is clouded over here and the energy in the air is changing. There’s a cool breeze coming in the window but that silence and stillness in the air where there may be a Thunderstorm en route- I love that feeling. Anyway, my train of thoughts went from Electric storm, to Electric Mayhem.. which reminded me of the busses in Haiti.. I’ll just lay it all out for you.

In Haiti public transit has taken a turn for the awesome.  Fantastic colors and decorations to escape, to hope for a return to that kind of color and happiness:

I think they look phenomenal… And they reminded me of the bus of the Electric Mayhem bus from the Muppet Movie- well, more than one Muppet movie:

or the Car from the Muppet Movie:

And all that those vehicles represent for me- and obviously for others. In searching for video of said bus I came across an SNL skit which was decently done, though being a Muppet fan I could do without the drugs or violence but the costumes were so well done, and voices…

But that takes me somewhat off topic since it’s not exactly positive. Here’s an old old clip of the bus:

Which leads me to be inspired today. Not only is there a sun shower out my window at the moment, but I’ve been reminded of a fantastic Muppet Movie scene, perhaps even my favorite, starts more along the 1:30 mark but all good:

Where they say:

“Life’s like a Movie

Write your own ending

Keep believing

Keep pretending

We’ve done just what we’ve set out to do…

Thanks to the lovers, the dreamers, and You.”

That always really did it for me. Whenever I was feeling down, and would motivate me to do so many things and be all over the place and learn learn learn and experience whatever there was. As an adult looking back at this – I still believe it.. and LOVE thinking back to a time in my life when telling a friend to keep pretending meant to keep practicing, to keep believing in something that could happen..

When is it in our lives that Keep Pretending and Dream On change meanings? Are we all so hardened that we’ve given up on this or is life so hard that everyone just wants to strangle the Hang in there Kitty? Reminds me of a quote from a famous Ancient Egyptian tale about life and death, where a man’s “soul” essentially tells him to stop his whining after a lot of written complaints about life and living and the promises that we (or others) make to each other about the beyond:

“Lay your complaining aside, my companion and my brother.

Make offerings on the altar and struggle for your life,

Just as you have declared.

Love me here (and now) and forget about the West..”

This is a translation by Vincent A. Tobin of “The Man Who Was Weary of Life” from This Book, which is not only an excellent translation of the famous piece but a fantastic piece of literature that really opens scholars eyes to the Egyptians as real human beings who doubt what they say as much as they believe it. Anyway, to further translate this and put it into context, the “soul” is saying that we all struggle for our lives and there is almost no use in complaining about it- that we have to enjoy our time now – right now, and then enjoy or lack there of whatever happens afterwards.  The story discusses what this man believed would be given to him after his death, and his “soul” stresses how much he would lose…

Anyway, I’ll leave you with this:

People, places, things that we want- to dream, to think- to have it on the mind, I firmly believe if there is hope that it can happen, if you can picture yourself there …. you can get there. There may not be exactly as you pictured it in your dream.. but it’s most likely right for you.

Dream on,

KQ