Something Wonderful: The Portal Story

by Vanderleun on January 16, 2020

Comments on this entry are closed.

Bunny January 16, 2020, 2:13 PM

Not as well done, but I’ll see your portal and raise you “crossing the threshold” of the hero’s journey.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=emb_title&v=GNPcefZKmZ0

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Stargazer January 16, 2020, 3:41 PM

It is a shame that Disney didn’t start the Narnia adventures with the first book: The Magician’s Nephew. It was one of the two best books of the series, the other being The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. More importantly, that book answered questions that the movie version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe never even asked. Why was the wardrobe magical? Who was the White Witch? What was the significance of the gas lamppost? Why Aslan? What was Narnia and how was it created? (Hint, Aslan had something to do with it.)

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Casey Klahn January 16, 2020, 4:09 PM

I am mostly glad to find that YT channel, except for the Christopher Hitchens horseshit. Oh well, a beautiful field will have such stuff.

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Gordon Scott January 16, 2020, 11:27 PM

I have great respect for anyone who can do that sort of analysis. Once someone points it out, I want to slap my forehead and mutter, “of course.”

Hitchens had his moments. It’s a shame that the best years of his life were spent defending the indefensible. Every time I hear or read that someone is a Trotskyite, I think of Hitchens, and how it must have cost his soul to have spent decades claiming that the loser of the intramural battle between industrial-scale mass murderers was virtuous.

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Joe Krill January 17, 2020, 11:14 AM

I am not ashamed to admit that when I was a kid I had a magic portal where everything was like it was supposed to be. Then again, I am often reminded that “Everything in life had a pattern and that a coincidence was simply the moment when the pattern became briefly visible.”

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jwm January 17, 2020, 10:44 PM

@ Joe Krill. Love that quote about coincidence.

JWM

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Larry Geiger January 18, 2020, 9:12 AM

This does not resonate with me. I live in the here and now. In reality. I’ve never been good with fantasy. I’ve never had the problem with unfulfilled dreams because I never had any. One day at a time. I know some people like that but it’s not me. I am extremely blessed to have found a wife that is pretty much the same. What you see is what you get.

Portal things are not that interesting. Dorothy was ok, though I never thought of OZ that way. Can’t stand Alice. The Incredible is cute. Oh well. I don’t drink. Never have. One of my favorite things is pruning the palmettos. And I have lots of those. I drive my ATV around picking up pruned palmetto fronds. Raking leaves. Sitting and watching a campfire for hours at a time. I think that I’m probably a very boring person. I suppose creative people confuse me. Have fun!

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jwm January 18, 2020, 9:47 AM

First: Joe Krill. Where did that quote come from? If it’s yours, I’m swiping it for my own sinister use. (you’ll get the credit, I promise.)

Next: If this resonates with any of you, You must see Miyazki’s film “Spirited Away”. Drop what you’re doing and get it.

Finally: The Portal can be found in any old edition of a Thomas Bros. Guide. Find the phantom street on any map page. Get a car from the same year the book was printed. Make sure all the coins in your pocket come from that year or earlier. No credit cards, cell phones, or current paper money. See y’all in ’74. I’m goin’ surfin.

JWM

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Casey Klahn January 18, 2020, 2:01 PM

Imagination connects to the higher order of things. Brain. Eyes. Mind. Memories. Universe. Spirit.

Without imaginations no art would exist, and I include even that zitty toad called photography. It does a passable job of reporting visual things, and much of what we identify in photographs is due to the training of our eyes to understand what is shown. IOW, imagination is one of the most powerful tools we have for interacting with the world.

If you spend enough time in the wild, both by yourself and as an observer of animals, you start to understand how important imagination is to making sense of our visual and aural world. Animals don’t see at all the way we do, with bisected sight lines and offset color vision. They’re brains process and understand the world according to their experiences and, I think, their instincts. Just consider how your own vision is informed by your brain. It is incredible.

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Joe Krill January 18, 2020, 4:09 PM

JWN.
“Everything in life had a pattern and that a coincidence was simply the moment when the pattern became briefly visible.”
The quote is from the Magpie Murders written by Anthony Horowitz. If you put it in the context of Gibbs Rule 39, “There is no such thing as a coincidence.” it gives a whole new meaning to life. Joe Krill

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Vince913 January 19, 2020, 3:34 AM

Is it meaning? Are people walking around observing their existence and trying to figure out what is their purpose. The portal, the inside of the rabbit hole, the dark forest the lion king travels to, Harry Potters travels, why are we here? What is the answer? If not obvious then maybe through the portal. To me Meaning is the answer. Live your life with meaning, your work, your significant other, your hobby’s.
The need for this is wired into our DNA. Dr. Jordan Peterson writes extensively on this.

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