It's a Small World After All

Oh, WHAT an intense weekend it's been, and how I love to discover forgotten things about myself so that I can work on them and become a more full and useful person. What a damn treat.

I'll discuss that more, later, when I figure out how to say it; for now, I want to say that magic really is the art of changing consciousness at will. And it can work.

At the 3Rivers Reclaiming Brigid ritual, there was some discussion beforehand about the wisdom of using "It's a Small World After All" as the goodbye song.

Now, understand me here: if there had been no discussion, I would never had mentioned my deep hatred of that song. I would have just let the energy flow through me without screwing it up for everybody else. But since there WAS a discussion, I chimed in and added my piece. Which, I believe, included some sarcasm. I don't remember this specifically, but I've met me, and I've heard myself discuss the song "It's a Small World After All," so I'd be willing to bet that there was sarcasm involved.

One of the other participants said that he'd had a really bad experience at Disneyland, whilst on that ride at the age of 5 or so, and that the doll automatons terrified him and the song now causes him grief. And I said I'd had that experience, too, only I was 28.

Anyway. We discussed this a while, and the young woman who had suggested the song spoke quite eloquently in favor of it, talking about its lightheartedness and the way in which it speaks of our connection to the big world we're in, giving us juice so that we can act politically, and I thought, you know, it's a song. I am not at Disneyland. There are no terrifying idiot dolls. I could sing the damn song.

So I changed my mind and spoke in favor of the song, and what with one thing and another we did indeed sing the song, and since I didn't know the verses, I just sang the chorus, which I did carefully and with compassion rather than with attitude, and it was a LOVELY song, and very meaningful.

Here it is, in case you yourself should wish to use it in your next ritual:

It's a world of laughter, a world or tears
Its a world of hopes, its a world of fear
There's so much that we share
That its time we're aware
Its a small world after all

CHORUS: Its a small world after all
Its a small world after all
Its a small world after all
Its a small, small world

There is just one moon and one golden sun
And a smile means friendship to everyone.
Though the mountains divide
And the oceans are wide
It's a small small world.

There you go. Consciousness, messed around with willfully.