A Peter Pan Quiz

For you adults
that sometimes feel like kids inside,
try to complete these ten quotes from Peter Pan:

1. Boy, why are you _________?

2. You see, Wendy, 
when the very first baby laughed for the very first time, 
its _______ broke into a thousand pieces, 
and that was the beginning of fairies.

3. Mr Darling's response to Wendy 
when she says she doesn't want to leave the nursery 
is "Oh ____________!"

4. Second star to the right, and straight on 'til __________!

5. When in doubt, ______!

6. I'm Nibs. I plan the _______.

7. If you believe in ___________, clap your hands.

8. To _____  will be an awfully big adventure.  

9. Welcome to the ____________, boys!

10. All children grow up, except _______.

Why the interest in Peter Pan?
My first graders are performing it this week.
They have been singing their guts out for weeks.
Pan just lost a tooth
and doesn't really perform,
he pretends.
He becomes Pan,
to the point he has his back to the audience,
whispering to Tinkerbell.
(I use my grandmother's clicker
to remind him
and a few others
that Grandma is sitting in the back
and needs to hear.)
Mr and Mrs Darling
are loving parents
even though Mr D does drag the dog Nana out by her leg.
Their children,
Wendy, John and Michael,
are played by sure-footed children
unafraid to jump from the bench to the radiator
to simulate flight.
The lost boys
and girl
are wild
and charming
and may steal the show.
"I'm Tootles!"
is even better with a lisp.
Princess Tiger Lily is serious
and creative with her dancing.
The pirates are wickedly goofy
and Captain Hook growls out every line.
He is keeping his plastic hook under control backstage--
the threat to make him use a curved finger
seems to be working.
The dramatic battle between Crocodile and Hook
is a fitting finale to Neverland.

The good news is
the play will be wonderful
despite,
or perhaps because of,
whatever mistakes occur.
The bad news is
these performers may never be this cute again.
They will grow adult teeth.
They will become self conscious.
They will grow up.

My advice to you
and you've heard it before:
Treasure.
Each.
Moment.
Well, most of them.

Time flies.

Oh,
and the answers?

1. "Boy, why are you crying?" said Wendy.

2. You see, Wendy,
when the very first baby laughed for the very first time,
its  laugh broke into a  thousand pieces,
and that was the beginning of fairies.

 3. Oh poppycock!

4. Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning!

5. "When in doubt, run!" said Tiger Lily.  

6. I'm Nibs. I plan the battles.

7. If you believe in fairies, clap your hands.

8. To die will be an awfully big adventure.

9. "Welcome to the family, boys!" said Mr Darling.

10. All children grow up,  except one.


...and one last bit of Peter Pan trivia.
Did you know that the name "Wendy"
did not exist before Peter Pan?

Already But Not Yet

It's 1:35 on Easter Sunday
and I am sitting on the front steps,
waiting.
Den and I are all ready for Easter
but Paul's family
and the Toms
and Shelby and her sister and friends
are not yet here.

The pysanky eggs
from childhoods past are on display.
Den has hidden the eggs for the girls' egg hunt.

The table is set with Grandma Maud's silver
and decorated with daffodils,
rabbits,
frog candlesticks,
Grandma's singing children,
and "Alleluia" written in Scrabble tiles.

I think of Maud every Easter
when I decorate the table,
when I serve sweet potatoes and beets,
when I sing a loud alto in church.
I am not the woman she was, however.
She would have ironed the tablecloth,
polished the silver,
waited for the rolls to rise before she baked them,
made homemade stuffing
and gravy from scratch.
She would have dug dandelion greens
to serve with hot bacon dressing.
She would have stuffed the celery
with three kinds of cheese.
I am more like Maud's older sister, Thelma.
Thelma served culinary disasters
and said, "That's the way I wanted it."
Thelma would have understood my hard-as-a-bullet rolls
and why I decided to leave the celery unstuffed
and unserved.
I don't call it lazy.
I call it enjoying the day.

For years,
Den and his dad went to sunrise services together
so Den misses Walt on Easter Sundays.
This morning
for the first time
we visited Mount Joy Methodist
because Walt is buried there
with four generations of Shaffners.
As we sang "He Lives"
we could look out the left side windows
and see the rising sun hitting the hillside
and we could look out the right side windows
and see Den's dad's gravestone
...and our own.
We may meet the Lord in the air at that very spot.
Death has been defeated!
Alleluia!

Now it is 10:30.
The third load is in the dishwasher.
It has been a great day
full of family
and old and new friends
and no one needed a bandaid.
We hunted for eggs
and ate outside
(new dish: black olives stuffed with m&ms)

then ate inside
(new dish: Paula Deen's pineapple cheddar casserole)
then played outside in the warm sunshine.
The girls rode Anna's razor tricycle,
then washed the driveway
and my car
while the grownups rode Anna's razor tricycle.

While some people took a walk
Anna wanted to have another egg hunt
and she volunteered to hide the eggs.
I refilled each 
with the traditional one m&m
and gave them to her.
Several minutes later
I accompanied two year old Lily Toms
on her search for eggs
and noticed that quite a few were now empty.
"Anna," I said,
"Why are some of the eggs empty?"
She got a little chocolaty grin on her face
and said,
"I wanted to remind Lily about the empty tomb.
It IS Easter, you know...."

Yes, it is.
We live in the "already, but not yet."
Death has already been defeated
and so we celebrate Easter,
but we have not yet experienced the final celebration.
We had better be prepared to be unprepared.