The first production I saw at Broughton Juniors, as it then was, was Mary Poppins in 2012, and they are doing that same musical this year, albeit in a different way. Growing up I loved watching the Mary Poppins film, and I was amazed at how well the Broughton children performed it. There were a few differences as theirs was based on the stage show, one of which was the song 'Anything can happen'.
This optimistic song is about dreaming big and aiming high: "When you reach for the stars all you get are the stars... When you reach for the heavens, you get the stars thrown in". These are the kind of messages we like to give children and young people to inspire them to work hard and pursue their dreams, and often schools have motivational phrases like this on their walls. They are also theme of thousands of memes on social media, and the summer's sporting events will give us plenty of stories of people who succeeded 'against all odds'.
However, I worry that we are selling a false hope. To say that 'anything can happen if you let it' is inspirational but not true – for example even in my younger, fitter days I would never have been able to play football for England: I could have been a better footballer if I'd have practised more but I don't have the natural talent and ability that you need to become a professional never mind an international. Similarly, I would never have been able to fulfil my childhood ambition of being a King!! Some things can be taught and practised but others can't.
But even if these aspirational phrases are not strictly true, what's wrong with giving people an inspirational thought? It seems to me that false hope can often be dangerous. I've written before about putting our hope in vaccines, which may help with the physical effects of COVID-19 but cannot help with our underlying fear of death. I've also written about how a false hope that our loved ones are 'safe' and 'happy' after death and that we will be reunited with them after our deaths means that we fail to take heed of Jesus' warnings that salvation is only through true and lively faith in him.
As well as this, encouraging false hope will inevitably lead to disappointment and bitterness, particularly if the message is “if you dream it, you can achieve it, just believe it”. When a person who thinks this is unable to achieve their dream then they automatically blame someone else: their belief was enough to achieve it, so the fact they haven't achieved it must be due to someone or something else. This feeling of entitlement to success or to have dreams fulfilled means that any opposition, however logical or reasonable, must be silenced (or 'cancelled'). Dreams and desires then become inextricably linked with identity – 'I am whatever I want to be' - and if anyone disagrees that becomes an 'abuse of human rights'.
So let's teach our children to dream big, aim high and work hard, but let's not kid them, or ourselves, with a false hope that we can achieve or be anything just by wishing hard.
