"Marvel" in the Real
Once upon a time, in a far-away kingdom but also nearby, many many years ago, almost 50, but also right now if you are able to imagine it, there was a little blue prince. Although as a child he had golden curls like in the best of tales, he soon realized that, although he was a prince, he was not going to be a conventional one. To begin with, he was not born in a castle but in Meixide d'A Veiga do Bolo, province of Ourense, in Spain. No one decided to be born after him in those soft mountains, one of the best places in the world to watch the stars. He was blue not because of royalty but because of peculiar health and habits. Although he loved many princesses he soon realized that he was not going to marry any of them. He was a prince because at some point he did not remember, as a child, he crowned himself as such, more or less like Napoleon. He was a prince of no territories and riches though, but of flowers and stars.
This prince fought unscathed innumerable dragons, big and small, all terrifying, but also quite atypical: leporine lip and split palate, brain tumors, experiences of sexual abuse, episodes of depression, suicide attempts, professional and vital contradictions... and even more, perhaps too horrifying to be mentioned here. When he went to war with yet another dragon, probably the fiercest one of all, he soon realized something that he composed into a minstrel song. It was that the little prince, despite his many victories on the battlefield, was much better at singing and dancing with his flowers and his stars than at "war". Above all, he just had a better time doing that. The poem said:
How much beauty in this "battle",
but perhaps no longer so.
How could flowers and stars go to fight an endless war?
Stars, however, with their light, scare the shadows.
And the flowers with their scent, a spell they cast.
There's no darkness if there's light, no odor if nice aroma.
Let's surrender with no fight, conquer all and win this war.
War of love, best of all, with an army made of fairies,mighty flowers and stars.
This prince and his "wonderful" kingdom do exist in the never ending story of life if you want them to exist. Like Bastian and Atreyu, you are part of this tale if you wish to be. This Childlike Emperor needs you to dream about the next chapter he would like to write. What has been going on lately is that not one but two great dragons lie in wait for him. The first one, a male they called Colon Cancer, and the second one, a female dragon named Chemotherapy. Chemotherapy was invoked by the wizards and witches of the kingdom, advisers to the little prince, in order to get rid of the first one. But you can imagine how it all goes down in a dragon fight! And everybody knows from the chronicles of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins that if you want to get along with a dragon, it is best not to wake them up... unless you know how to tame them.
These dragons are however awake and cannot be tamed, according to the kingdom's witches and wizards. One dragon would have to kill the other and then hopefully go to sleep... although no one knows for how long. The story this prince wants is one without fights and wars though. Could an army of stars mesmerize and tame the mighty beasts...with their dance, their music, and their beauty? This is what the little prince proposes to do, organizing a party, the biggest that anyone has ever imagined, even greater than Cinderella's. "It's madness", the wisest ones of the kingdom say. "He's stubborn", those who know the prince comment "At least we will have a good time", the most pragmatic ones offer. "I don't see it," many more say.
Nevertheless, invitations for "the party of life" to everyone, gals, guys, and non-binary ones, are already reaching many corners of the world. A party for fairies, flowers and stars... wizards and witches... loonies and sane... and even for dragons, but only if asleep or tamed. A party where believing becomes creating ("creer" becomes "crear", in Spanish), where we take this reality that is given to us to create the wonderful reality that we all want to dream about. It will be on October 29 in Miami, at the Fairchild Botanical Tropical Garden, a magical place but also real.
This is the invitation and the little prince is me. Are you coming to the party?
Photo: Ibiza (Spain), courtesy of my sister Francisca Fernández Carriba