The Golden Ticket

by Suki | Jul 26, 2012

The golden ticket = life!

Give yourself a look.
An earnest one.
Are you living the life you were meant to lead?
Are you happy in your relationship?
Have you fulfilled your dreams?

Last week I watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Not the new one with Johnny Depp. The original, awesome one with Gene Wilder.

The movie, with all it’s elaborate costumes, witty dialogue, and infectious music is really about one thing: the self.

These bratty, wicked little children are in for a surprise when they reach the magical world of chocolate. The flaws they refuse to fix lead to their early demise.

It’s quite a frightening tale, really. With Wilder singing, “there’s no easy way of knowing which direction we are going.”

But one direction is evidently clear. The way to the golden ticket is to be pure of heart but also to take a long, hard look at yourself maybe even through clown mirrors, and tell us what you see. It’s almost like a page from the Bible.

I might be a bit of a wuss but I cried when I watched it last week. Not because it was sad but because I finally understood it. It was like I had been watching it on repeat for 20 years and was only now waking up.

Writer Roald Dahl, the original wordsmith behind Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was an avid believer in the imagination. He wanted children to imagine, inspire, dream, and believe in magic.

He wrote to inspire children to stop the gluttony and self indulgence and instead look within. Love yourself!

Dahl once wrote, “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”

Watching Gene Wilder begin to sing, “hold your breath, make a wish, count to three, come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination,” I finally got it.