Let's Go Fly a Kite Rev. Catie Scudera Do You

Let’s Go Fly A Kite Rev. Catie Scudera Do you remember when you meet George Banks in the old Disney movie Mary Poppins? Katie Nanna has just lost track of the Banks children, Jane and Michael, again, and has told the cook and the maid that she won’t stay another day with two such wayward children; and then, Winifred Banks comes home from a full day of advocacy fighting for women’s right to vote (a cause about which her husband does not approve), and Katie Nanna tells her that she’s lost the children, again, and doesn’t care, and just wants the pay she’s earned so far before she leaves the house for good; and so, Mrs. Banks is in quite a panic — hiding her suffragist sash, worrying about her lost children, and also worrying about how Mr. Banks will respond to this news when he “was just beginning to get used to” Katie Nanna. And then, we see Mr. Banks for the first time, walking home from his work at the bank and telling the neighbor that all is well because, “Money’s sound. Credit rates are moving up, up, up. And the British pound is the admiration of the world.” He doesn’t mention his family because, as he sings about shortly thereafter, he really doesn’t pay any attention to them: “It’s grand to be an Englishman in 1910 King Edward’s on the throne, it’s the age of men I’m the lord of my castle the sovereign, the liege I treat my subjects — servants, children, wife — with a firm but gentle hand, noblesse oblige “It’s 6:03 and the heirs to my dominion Are scrubbed and tubbed and adequately fed And so I’ll pat them on the head and send them off to bed Ah, lordly is the life I lead” Having arrived home on schedule at precisely six o’clock, that means that Mr. Banks is only seeing his children three minutes a day… Only at the end of this little ditty does his wife get a word in edgewise to tell him that the children are missing. When the local constable returns them, Jane and Michael explain that they were chasing their poorly made kite, and ask if their father would help them construct a new, more suitable one… But, instead, Mr. Banks, who has no time for such silliness, decides they must hire a new nanny — one even stricter and more commandeering than the Let’s Go Fly A Kite Rev. Catie Scudera First Parish in Needham, 6/19/16 grouchy Katie Nanna. How, then, the family ends up employing Mary Poppins— a nanny who takes Jane and Michael on all sorts of fanciful adventures — was, of course, a matter of storybook magic… Rev. Kristin Grassel Schmidt said in our prayer that we honor those “who have warm and loving relationships with their fathers and children,” “those who for whatever reason did not know their fathers,” and “those whose relationships with their fathers or children is painful or complicated.” Jane and Michael indeed had a “painful and complicated” relationship with Mr. Banks, one only a “practically perfect” nanny like Mary Poppins could mend. And, this fractured relationship was true of the Mary Poppins author, who went by the pen name P.L. Travers. When Travers was a little girl, growing up in British-colonized Australia in the early 1900’s, her name was Lyndon Goff, daughter of Margaret and Travers Goff. She very much loved her father, who was imaginative and gregarious despite, like Mr. Banks, being a banker. But while her father was more emotionally attentive than the serious George Banks, Travers Goff had his own struggles. He suffered from addiction to alcohol, which meant he drank more alcohol than his body could digest, yet his addicted body would make him feel very sick if he stopped drinking; back in the early 1900’s, there weren’t medical interventions and support groups to help a person out of addiction. Travers Goff was demoted at his bank, again and again, and the family moved to increasingly remote parts of Australia for his work. A saving grace was Lyndon’s stern but loving Great Aunt Ellie. Aunt Ellie always brought with her a carpet bag full of odds and ends, and a mind of pithy and unsentimental bits of advice. She gave Lyndon’s life some consistency, which her parents could not provide. But, not even stabilizing Aunt Ellie could save Travers Goff. He died when Lyndon was just seven years old, due to complications from his addiction. Lyndon missed him the rest of her life. And, when she was in her thirties, Lyndon Goff (as P.L. Travers) started writing whimsical stories loosely based on her own family. Aunt Ellie became Mary Poppins, P.L. became Jane, and her father became George Banks. As her biographer Valerie Lawson wrote, “Travers believed that Mary Poppins came to the Banks family to save Mr. Banks from his unfulfilled life and to make him 2 Let’s Go Fly A Kite Rev. Catie Scudera First Parish in Needham, 6/19/16 realize that family was his real priority.” In this way, P.L. Travers wrote the Mary Poppins stories to create the happy ending the Goff family never had. In the movie, it’s Bert, the jack-of-all-trades who happens to sweep the Banks’ chimney, who gives Mr. Banks such a crucial piece of advice at the turning point of the film: “You’re a man of ‘igh position Esteemed by your peers And when your little tykes are cryin’ You ‘aven’t time to dry their tears And see them grateful little faces Smilin’ up at you Because their dad, ‘e always knows Just what to do “You’ve got to grind, grind, grind At that grindstone Though child’ood slips like sand through a sieve And all too soon they’ve up and grown And then they’ve flown And it’s too late for you to give Just that spoonful of sugar To ‘elp the medicine go down…” And maybe you remember that right then Mr. Banks goes to bank and is fired. In that moment, as his former coworkers bully him, he observes how dour and hard the old owner of the bank is… A man to whom Mr. Banks had looked up… And he remembers Bert’s words: “you’ve got to grind at that grindstone, though childhood slips like sand through a sieve”… And instead of feeling humiliated by what’s happening, George Banks laughs at how absurdly serious they all are, and tells them a joke that Michael had told him earlier: “There are these two wonderful young people, Jane and Michael. And they meet one day on the street, and Jane says to Michael, ‘I know a man with a wooden leg named Smith,’ and Michael says, ‘Really? What’s the name of his other leg?’” And George Banks laughs, and laughs, and leaves, skipping and singing… And, the next time we see him, he’s arriving at home, kissing his wife and having 3 Let’s Go Fly A Kite Rev. Catie Scudera First Parish in Needham, 6/19/16 crafted a beautiful new kite to fly with his children. He doesn’t even comment when Mrs. Banks takes out her suffragist sash and ties it as a tail on the kite. As the Banks goes out together to fly their kite, Mary Poppins floats off, her work finished — finally, Mr. Banks has genuine joy and desire to play with his family. It’s the happy ending that P.L. Travers wished for her younger self and for all families who go through times of struggle. And, what will we do with our warm weather weeks ahead? Will we take more than three minutes a day with our family members, friends, loved ones? Will we keep ourselves imaginative, silly, healthy? Will we play? Chicano-American poet and educator Francisco Alarcón replies, “let us be a drizzle a sudden storm let us get wet in the rain let us be the key the hand the door the kick the ball the road let us arrive as children to this huge playground: the universe!” Blessed be, and amen. 4 .

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