Peter Pan is a Grown Up

I've never really understood why Peter Pan is such a classic. This forever-boy character refuses to grow up, but in reality, boys and girls hurry up to become men and women. Or maybe, I have become jaded and can't just see the point of remaining a boy [or a girl]. Unless of course I imagine myself in Peter Pan's shoes - and then I become in control of my own adventures and who knows what else.

But maybe, Peter Pan's story is not for me. It is for the adventurous, for the risk taker, for the throw-all-caution-to-the-wind types - definitely not for the clock-ish, one-step-at-a-time ponderers.

So I get it.

What if, just for a moment, I leave my comfort zone and fly?

Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, I had dreams of flying. This was decades before I saw those Hollywood films directed by an Asian where the characters, who were all probably of Chinese origin, did their sword fights among the swaying trees, and thrust their swords at each other - "flying". The film was called "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". I can't even recall the story now, but I recall the flying, or it seemed to me that that was flying, because that was also how I "flew" in my dreams. I remember that I dreamt my dreams during many consecutive nights, like a series. And I remember the power, the freedom, the bliss.

In the play "Peter Pan" by Repertory Philippines starring Sam Concepcion, Peter Pan's flying is a visible display of super kid-power. As soon as this boy is hoisted up on air, everybody cheers him on: he, the peer group leader, the boy-schemer, the reckless rule-breaker. His goal for every adventure is to be a true friend, and he flies as he wins everybody's heart and affection. He is really much like the kiddo whose cute smile will make you forgive all his misdemeanors.

Peter Pan refuses to grow up because in growing up, pain and failure sets in. He remains in Never-land, where adventure happens for adventure's sake because his youth is his power. As he is constantly in touch with the child within, hardly any tragedy can destabilize him. He refuses the chaos of a settled existence because he is happily here or there, and it doesn't matter where.

The only way to pursue an unsettled, happy life is to live in the realm of fantasy. Yet even within one's imagination, where space and situation can be manipulated, a Captain Jack can still lurk in the corners and cause suffering. The only way to beat him is to be in a higher dimension, literally up in the air, and have the advantage of an air view, much like an applied insight - that is, of a fully grown man.

So this is the problem with Peter Pan: He is a boy and yet he is not. His stubborn decision to remain a boy is a man's decision. He flies and he is a picture of victory. He fights greed and vanity by his freedom from both. He leans not on the promise of the future but on the many possibilities of the present. He meets Wendy at her old age and does not recognize her because he has flown even over the ages, and has completely mastered time.