The Devestation of the Hundred Acre Wood

We may be sure that even today, Peter Pan leads many children to the Neverland. And we know from the children among us that Peter and his home are the same as in our ancestors' day, for no ambitious adult can reach near enough to ruin it. You see, as J.M. Barrie discovered, most Neverlands are islands, and islands are hard to reach, especially since to reach the Neverland, one must fly for months.

This is not, however, true about all the Neverlands. There are some that are not islands. You may remember one such, for just like the Neverland, you have probably traveled to it in your childhood. It is called the Hundred Acre Wood, and it is known for a series of legends which arose from it in the past century, mostly centering around a stuffed bear "of Very Little Brain", his cadre of adventurers and his friend, Christopher Robin.

Adults call this wood, "Ashdown Forest" and it is in no danger particularly. However, there are many forests and woods like Ashdown which have served as portals to the Neverland for many children, and some of these are becoming threatened. In a sort of mechanistic march those woods once called "Hundred Acre" are now called "Seventy-Five Acre" or "Twenty-Seven Acre" or even "Three Quarter Acre" Woods.

Developers march relentlessly against great groves of pines and ash and elm, like those of Bonney Lake and of Maple Valley and Sammamish. They enter idyllic lands with zeal and leave behind them only scars on the hills and houses where homes once stood. Surely hundreds of Homes Beneath the Ground have been dug under by earth movers, and many a Swiss Family Robinson lookout has been manufactured into a dining room wall.

Naturally the catastrophe is not limited to the physical world. It seems these Captain Hooks are intent on destroying all creativity by squishing gigantic imaginations and their families into cookie-cutter boxes devoid of aesthetics.

As they crush a generation of free-thinkers and wipe away Neverland, one can only ask, "Did these developers, as boys and girls, never meet Peter and never fall in love with Tiger Lily or feel the fear of Piglet and the unfettered joy of Tigger?" One must wonder, "Did they have mothers?" or "Did their mothers close the window? Did they chain them to their beds until they forgot how to fly?" Only be thankful your mother was happy to let you fly freely too and from the Neverland and adventure, before she made you grow old in school. Only be thankful you have not turned out like these crocodiles, chewing the arms of children, and handing them a gaming console to replace their forest haunts.

Oh heavy day it is that dawns to find the Hundred Acre Wood buried beneath a shopping mall, stuffed full of stores selling rememedies to a depressed generation.