Sometimes, We All Feel Dopey

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When I wrote my original series of posts about Travel Secrets of the Seven Dwarfs nine years ago, I started the post with what turned out to be rather prophetic words:

"If Walt Disney developed Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs today, I doubt he would have selected such insulting names for the Dwarfs.  Undoubtedly, someone would have challenged his intolerance of the vertically challenged evident in the negative stereotypes, which of course are neither exclusive to nor endemic within the Dwarf community."

Baby boomers remember Uncle Walt speaking soothingly as he introduced each episode of his Sunday evening anthology series on NBC.

The show had several names, including Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color throughout the 1960's. It was a must-see for those of us fortunate to have an RCA color television in our homes.  The great Mr. Disney has long since gone to that Magic Kingdom in the Sky, but his company still carries the name.  His example has inspired decads of imitators.

No one alive today would call him Dopey, but at the time, many experts thought Walt's foray into an amusement park, Disneyland, was stark-raving mad.  The difference between looking crazy or visionary in the rearview mirror comes down to the success of the venture.

According to Los Angeles Times, opening day at Disneyland in 1955 was chaotic.  Mr. Disney might have felt like he was Dopey for not foreseeing the problems.

Even before it opened, Hollywood dubbed Disneyland to be "Walt's Folly."  What fool would invest $17 million in a 160-acre amusement park among the rural orange groves of aptly named Orange County, California?

The disastrous opening of Disneyland earned headlines of "Walt's Nightmare," but Orange County families like my own were nonetheless soon lining up to get in, because the lovable narrator was a great promoter.  In fact, before the inception of color TV, his weekly show was called "Walt Disney's Disneyland" from 1954 to 1958.  The rest is history.

As a real estate investment alone, Disneyland proved to be pure genius.  Now the SoCal megalopolis spreads north of Los Angeles down to the Mexican faux-border and east into the far reaches of the Inland Empire.

Who seems Dopey now?  Walt or his worldly-wise critics?

Walt was obviously not Dopey but in fact a true visionary.

Most of us will never dream that big, but we can nonetheless know what we want from life and then do our best to make it a reality.

When you go on a vacation, don't waste time looking for the bad elements, because in a world where our minds are bombarded with stimuli from all corners, there certainly will be some negatives if that is where we choose to focus. Concentrating on annoyances rather than embracing the best of all possible consciousness would be Dopey.

As the old Beatles song, Dear Prudence, taught us, "Open up your eyes...Let me see you smile like a little child."

It's your vacation.  Make it great!