The Land of Make Believe
The Land of Make Believe is the poster that hung over my bed until I was ten. It was old, my grandfather had lovingly framed it for my mother when she was a girl. He used a heavy wooden frame. He mounted the poster and painted multiple layers of varnish on it; so it was not under glass, but it was protected. It had a slightly textured surface from the varnish, so when I traced my little finger on it, I could feel the surface. It had the character of an ancient relic to me.I loved it. I would kneel on my bed and trace the path considering all the possibilities, all the places I could go. Then I didn’t see it anywhere for years. When my husband, John, and I were getting to know each other I started to tell him about it and his jaw dropped. He grew up with the Land of Make Believe hanging over his bed too. Same memories of it. Kneeling on the bed, finger tracing, imagining.
I think it had a big impact on how I see the world and how I see vocation and enterprise. Look at all of the people and all of the widely divergent things they are doing. I always liked, although I couldn't have named it, the idea that I could see all of these things happening at once, but the characters only saw the environment where they were placed. This was the first time I knew the beauty of a broad perspective.
I like it as the image for our sandbox, our place for shared play and exploration.
If you love it too, they have started reprinting it and you can get one here!
