Mouse ears in the sky

Come on in
Orlando, FL
January 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

When Mickey stands ready to welcome the world, we'd do well to stop for a bit and take in the spectacle.

It's easy to be cynical around a Disney character, especially one as overcommercialized as Mickey Mouse, but we should avoid the temptation. Almost a century after Steamboat Willie first appeared and introduced us to the magic of animated motion pictures, Mickey and his buddies have become not only icons of the entertainment industry, but universally recognized symbols of childhood, happiness, and inclusion.

So the image of him standing high atop the entrance to Hollywood Studios struck me as worth remembering on this, our first visit to this place. I spent much of the day with half an eye looking for signs, snippets, elements that would serve as signatures of our time here. So grabbing something right at the front door seemed like a worthwhile use of megapixels, and an effective way to kickstart a day of childlike exploration with my family.

The deeper we got into the park, the more I thought about what I had seen at its entrance. Seeing the fine detail in something as typically simple as this makes me wonder why we don't make a bigger deal of the welcome.

Even something as basic as a welcome mat on the front porch seems to soften the moment, crack a smile, instantly change how visitors feel as they cross the threshold and enter someone else's space. Humans seem to be big on beginnings and endings, greetings and goodbyes and other milestones, so it makes eminent sense to record them a bit more deliberately, to be a little more in the moment as we experience them.

I'm just naive enough to believe that paying more attention to the welcome will somehow ripple out some goodness into the universe. Call me an optimist.

Who would have imagined it would be Mickey who would remind me why this matters as much as it does? Thanks, buddy.

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