A week or so ago, an excavated pit reinforced with wood from small trees and surrounded by sandbags was found deep in a Michigan woods. Suspicious minds panicked. Some thought a paramilitary group might be involved. Others were convinced it was made by survivalists or drug dealers. Fears and concerns abounded. All were wrong.
It proved to be the handiwork of two imaginative young boys who saved their allowances to buy vintage tools and build a clubhouse/fort in which to camp. Because adults are so often skewed by rumors and phantom fears, they are quick to forget the magic and ingenuity of childhood. In the big scheme of things, consider how great it was for the kids to have been outside being creative instead of hypnotically staring at a smartphone?...
If we set the WayBack Machine for 75 years ago, a 1946 comic strip detective named Dick Tracy also captured the imagination of children. Tracy talked into an impossibly hi-tech invention called a two-way wrist radio. He had been around for 15 years prior but the wrist radio represented a new and fantastical dream of the future. In 1964, Tracy’s communication tool was upgraded to a wrist TV. Again, kids conjured the possibilities. Today, many of those fantasies have come to be with the iWatch.
There hasn’t been a time when the exuberance of youngsters hasn’t been met with their belief in “what if?” Of course, summer – be it at a kid’s clubhouse or a camp – is the ideal time to follow those silly or impossible “castles in the sky.”
Consider the number of “foolish” children who have dreamed of flying like a bird. A mere 38 years ago, adults rolled their eyes when kids talked of dreaming to fly and soar in the sky. That summer, a man wearing a flight suit, helmet and jet pack flew solo in front of tens of thousands of spectators before landing inside the Los Angeles Colosseum for the opening of the 1984 Olympic Games.
Cheesy as it sounds, that line struck a chord with kids. It bolstered their belief that anything is possible. It was just as in the 1960s, when Popeye convinced kids eating spinach would quickly make them super strong. (From experience I attest that, because of Popeye, we scarfed down the vegetable.) Children are now drawn to Buzz’s belief that he (and they) can “go beyond.”
It’s those two words that are highlighted on four new commemorative postage stamps. They feature four images of Buzz in his spacesuit in profile, running, standing sideways and posing.
For the record, Buzz wasn’t the original name conceived for the cartoon character. The creators at Disney and Pixar originally had given him the name Lunar Larry. They soon agreed that was too silly. So, in homage to actual astronaut and second man on the moon Buzz Aldrin, they combined his first name with the cool space term “light-year.” Buzz Lightyear was born.
The new First Class “Forever” stamps take a visible departure from the original comical, goofy and accident-prone character of Toy Story fame. Instead, the four postal images show a more serious “Buzz” as seen in the just-released, full-length animated feature Lightyear. That film and character is said to reflect the “real” Buzz Lightyear character on which the Toy Story toy is based. Confused yet? Evidently, so are movie-goers. The film has not been embraced in theaters and is far from a successful Toy Story spinoff which has enjoyed three profitable encores.
Box office revenues aside, the Buzz Lightyear stamps are great catalysts for the imagination of children and their dreams. They are the perfect kindling for unbridled inventiveness kids inherently have and love to pursue. The stamps are also fun additions for those who enjoy collecting stamps with a “space” theme. Not surprisingly, endless amounts of those intergalactic stamps are annually issued in countries around the globe.
The new USPS Lightyear “Go Beyond” stamps are slated to hit post offices in just over a month, on August 3.
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