Disenchantment

Many people are disenchanted with life, and many children disenchanted with school. This reveals itself in demotivation, with a lack of meaning or purpose to life, work and study. A disenchanted person is cynical, and without joy, aspiration or vision of what is possible. It is a kind of personal disintegration. Depression may be a consequence.

So what is the enchantment they have lost? Pooh Bear’s Enchanted Forest is a place where the imagination can run riot, in a place filled with possibilities and potential. In today’s stories of witches and spells, enchantment is caricatured and made ridiculous. Enchantment as a deep and transforming inner experience should not be jettisoned as similar nonsense. We either view our world as enchanted or boringly ordinary. We either see the beauty of the butterfly or flower, or we do not. We either see an animal, a creature, or a pet or pest. We may see our ordinary relationships and friendships as magical and beautiful, or only as useful to our own needs, the same but more so with our special relationships. The magic in the air on any ordinary day has nothing to do with spirits, angels or fairies, but with our responses to beauty, deep meaning and human hope. We have moments of enlightenment, insight and inspiration - thoughts, mental pictures, unexpected connections and links, music, art.

The world in an enchanted place if we are open to joy, curiosity and wonder. It is full of possibility if we aspire to act positively. It is a good place only if we learn to see the good in it. Our relationships will be good and positive if we are respectful and sincere, and receive respect and sincerity in return. The world does not make this an easy path. When respect and sincerity are rebuffed, we may with persistence win respect over time, or we may despite effort fail. This may be our fault, but if we have done our best it probably will not be. We all make positive and negative choices when confronting illness, bereavement, ill will, injury and misfortune. The quality of our lives will depend upon those choices. Even the forgiveness of those who harm or kill those we love are examples of these often difficult choices. We can criticise without hating and work to change the perpetrators.

Disenchantment is the negative choice, a negation of life and of relationship, a refusal to be positive, cooperative or supportive. It is a rut from which it is hard to escape, a habit of disagreeableness and neurosis. To fail to get out of this rut condemns us to unhappy and unfulfilled relationships and experiences.