Doubting What Nobody is Sure About

I must have been about 7 or 8 years old the first time I watched “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”.

It instantly became my favorite movie (the Gene Wilder version – not the freaky Johnny Depp rendition).

I mean, at the time, candy was the only currency I really understood. And what grown-up kid doesn’t fantasize about swimming in a chocolate river? Come on, admit it. You know you want to.

However, after having watched the movie at least a thousand more times, I realize that Willy Wonka is more than just an endless pouring of sweets, golden geese eggs and everlasting gobstoppers.

Some of life’s most important lessons can be gleaned from this eccentric candy maker and his Chocolate Factory.

We live in a world overrun by cynics where a handful of dreamers fight to belong. But, thankfully, even the most skeptical among us carries a flicker of desire to believe the unbelievable.

Without it, Hollywood couldn’t sell movie tickets. And hopelessness would plague the planet.

Wonka lesson #1: So long as there is even the slightest urge to suspend disbelief, it’s hard for even the most consummate cynic to doubt what nobody is sure about.

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