Now, the littlest Caveman isn't much of a reader, so I really thought it would be difficult for him to settle on a character. I expected him to choose something from a tv show or movie. There tends to be a lot of that on dress up day, plenty of Darth Vaders and Jack Sparrows on the school oval - but that's okay. They are still characters from stories, even if they didn't start out as books.
I started nudging my boy to think about book characters a couple of weeks ago, knowing that it could take a while to come up with a character that he: A. has heard of and B. is prepared to dress up as.
Then, tragedy struck. One of the brightest lights in world entertainment, Robin Williams, passed away. This news came as a huge shock in our house ... the Caveman and I have always been big fans and had made sure our kids knew who he was too. As more details emerged about his death, I was struck by the fact that someone who had brought so much joy to millions of people around the world should have been so troubled in his own life. The media was flooded with stories about Robin and the lives he'd touched, as well as many really important articles regarding depression. If any good can come of his death, maybe it will be more awareness of just how serious depression can be and the importance of losing the stigma associated with mental health issues.
For us, on a 'fan level', we felt the need to immerse ourselves in his work. We watched Dead Poets Society, Good Morning Vietnam and Flubber in quick succession. It was great, as if watching his movies was keeping him alive for us (and we have plenty more to watch yet).
You might wonder what this has to do with Literacy Week? Well, at some point, Peter Pan popped into my head. I suggested it to my little man and got the horrifying response, "Who's that?" I was mortified. How could he not know Peter Pan? Admittedly, it had been a while since we'd read the story, or watched the movie, so it was clearly time to remedy the situation. Out came the 1953 Disney movie, which we sat and watched together. A true Classic. This then led us to also watch our copy of Hook. It's not a great movie, there is so much about it that could have been done better ... but I don't think anyone one else could have played a grown-up Peter Pan as well as Robin Williams did.
As it turns out, not surprisingly, my boy chose to dress up as Peter Pan for school today (and I think he's put more of the Hook version into his portrayal than the original).
Meanwhile, as for Robin Williams himself, he will always be around. I won't make any pretense of grieving for him, not in the true sense - nobody could possibly be as affected by his death as his own family and friends. He certainly made an impact on the rest of us though, and I will always enjoy watching his work and genuinely hope that he found his peace in the end.
