Oct. 11, 2001 - 21:26 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

A Boy's Fantasies

In the deadly serious world of a small boy I remember that not long after I learned to read, Aladdin and His Lamp And Genie Guy lit the fire under my fantasy boiler. I fantasised all sorts of good stuff.

One of my treasured fantasies was about the Magic Carpet, and considering the state of our world and airlines today, I'd sorta like to have one now.

Deaming and fantasizing I built an imaginary Magic Carpet, it looked like the Oriental Carpet in the house of Mom's friend. A thick, soft, lustrous thing of colorful beauty, a very Mercedes of a carpet, just my size - - with all the options of course, bells and whistles to the max.

I flew on that rug on many fantasy trips to unusual and far away places that I had only just read about. My dreams included sitting at ease at a luxurious table in a comfortable chair in the King's castle and penning on parchment my next interesting itinerary. Each time to different places for different reasons, just skipping here and there at will.

Of course I flew over Egypt, saw the Pyramids, even looked down on the very top of the tallest one. Elephants, camels, lions, snakes by the bundle and those scary scarabs. In my imagnation a pirate raid on a foreign ship did I witness, blood and all. Then there was a round trip over the Poles, North and South. Of course no extreme of heat or cold could reach anyone on my Magic Carpet nor could mosquitos and bugs fly into my air space. Cool water and hot chocolate were always on hand

My carpet took me to places I had seen pictures of, once went to Paris, France and visually surveyed the Eiffel Tower from top to bottom, close at hand, then to the Alps of Switzerland by way of Venice, Italy to see the canals and gondoliers and beautiful buildings. Anywhere that could hold interest for a boy, I visited in my imagination.

With my inflated imagination, I had the company of my old companion, Big Bill, an imaginary guy, a bit older than I and much wiser. It seemed as if he pointed out things I had missed, he helped make the plans for the next trip. Big Bill and I did everything together and in my dreams he took half of my whippngs which were aimed at me but he manfully bore the pain and chagrin. He and I would have long conversations about things those times too.

How could anyone be bored (a word which had to be explained to me --- in depth), with an imaginary world peopled with what ever one would wish.

With other boys I played Cowboys 'n Indians, Cops 'n Robbers, Pirates and the ships and people that were looted. My imagination helped there a bit too. I would get an idea in the middle of the activities and say, "Let's pretend we are . . . . and we go . . . . . and conquer . . . . and then explore in . . . . . sometimes my crowd would go for it, but if not Big Bill and I had our evening at home activities already made in Pretend land. My cousins would play, "Let's make believe, very akin to my fantasies and usually I would go for their games when with them We all had perfect freedom in Fantasyland.

So tomorrow my wish would be that the world be at peace, everyone would have a good family, food, a home, shoes and clothes,liberty and freedom from fear. My wish would be that all nations would live in peace.

I accomplished it tonight in A Boy's Fantasies . . . . . . .

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