Last fall my family and I traveled to Disney and I forgot how magical Mickey and Minnie’s world is. I mean, yes, there’s screaming children (including mine) and far too much external stimulation and not enough liquor and you’re forced to acknowledge muscles in your feet and legs that you’ve never considered, so… not ALWAYS magical, but the whimsical notion that magic breeds beauty is true in its entirety.

Full disclosure: I am not aware of a single thing about Disney’s employment practices or treatment of their employees. I don’t know if they pay their people fairly or how their corporate atmosphere is to work in, but what I can attest to is a kindness and an inclusion that I’ve never seen matched anywhere else, except Mayo Hospitals. Disney staff exhibit these traits everywhere- lodging, transportation, inside the park, all across guest services, and even in how their parks are designed.

Physically disabled? You can go!
Cognitive disabilities? There’s room for you!
Families that don’t match? Welcome!
English not your first language? Come in!
Member of the Alphabet Community? You’re safe here!

The list goes on, but it was most obvious at Magic Kingdom. We stood in line to meet the princesses and we sat in crowds to watch princesses and we shopped all the princess merchandise. We even stayed up way past bedtime to see the stellar firework show. And do you know what the connecting theme was all day?

Empowerment.
Permission to dream.
Encouragement to chase passion.
Radical acceptance.

Mickey made me ugly cry when his voice rang out across the streets reassuring the people filling those very streets that THEY were the true magic. Their presence brought joy to this world. Not just inside the gates of the Disney fairytale, but in streets all across the world. Cue the Kleenex.

It’s mid-2023 and we live in a world where cruelty has become commonplace.

The LGBTQIA+ community is targeted and murdered, even as they innocently dance with their friends. Their rights are stripped and lawmakers filled with bigotry are trying to snuff out their mere existence in plain sight.

People of color are targeted and murdered in their homes while they sleep and in our town squares while the world watches but takes no action outside of a brave teenaged girl with a cell phone.

Children are targeted and murdered in their classrooms while the “good guys with the guns” stand by and do nothing while another psycho maniac waltzes into a basic sporting goods store and buys 100 more magazine clips so we can read about that attack next.

Teenagers are committing suicide in frightening numbers as a result of the incessant bullying in schools and across the interwebs and parents continually say phrases like “toughen up, kid!”, or “you’re just too sensitive!”, all the while promising a brighter tomorrow. One that won’t come for another slew of kids that will take their own life tonight.

Women are bought and sold like property all over the nation. Politicians take away their bodily autonomy and people start clapping. Glass ceilings are actually more like cement walls as time seemingly moves backwards.

Poverty spans across every city and within every county across America. Children go home hungry. Mothers don’t make enough to buy formula when they can even find it on the shelves. Fathers are absent, everywhere. And yet still we ignore the pleas for livable wages because inequality serves those in power.

Churchgoers are leaving the church as Christian Nationalism overpowers true faith and the white men in power pretend to be dazed and confused (and angry!) as to why they owe all the above-mentioned their true repentance.

Don’t even get me started on the broken foster care system.

So it’s like a breath of fresh air when you hear anything contradictory to the societal messages and diabolical normative that we continue to allow.

Shrink, don’t shine.
Not welcomed here.
Harmful, hateful language.
Not all (fill-in-the-blanks)…
Do better.
Lose the weight.
Fit in, don’t stand out.
They won’t believe you, anyways.
You’ll never make it.
Less than.
Money is true power.
Forgive and forget.
Hate the sin, yet love the sinner.

Listen, forget the narratives. Spit those things out! Challenge the voices! Evolve, grow, and demand actual change! Start the change at home. Today. Teach your kids to be better than you by shattering generational traumas. Give by whatever means you have. Be the match that starts the blazing fire of movements that rock our idealogies to the core. Vote. Give the guy on the corner your five bucks because even if he uses it for booze, I guarantee in his position we would want a drink, too. Volunteer at shelters you’d never imagine yourself in. Don’t love in words, love in deeds. Question your beliefs and your alliances. Quit blindly floating through life while trying not to make waves.

Your voice matters!
Your existence matters!
Your choices matter!
Your impact matters!
Your pronouns matter!
Your life matters!

YOU are magic. Make good use of your power. I’m always rooting for you.