In Which I Attempt to Write a Book Review Just So I Can Gush About Disney and Get All Philosophical

It's 86º in Buffalo as I type this, and I have chills.

Don't get me wrong. It's still miserably hot and I'm still hating summer. I even posted a picture on Facebook this morning of Anna and Elsa with Anna's quote, "Do the magic!" in an attempt to make it start snowing. Yeah. That didn't work so well. I have no desire to venture outside and I am almost 7000 steps short of my daily 10,000 goal. So I hung out on the internet for a while. And I watched two episodes of season two of 24. Yes, I'm a little behind the times, but courtesy of Amazon Prime and Roku, I can get annoyed by a TV show whenever I want!! Ha.

Then I decided to finish the book I was reading. I started it last week, and made it through about 70% of it. That's where the chills come in.

This is the book I just finished reading, and my eyes are all puffy. It's a very easy read and it's almost like reading one of my beloved Disney trip reports... with the minor difference being that this family totally uprooted their lives so their autistic child could be closer to Disney World.

The author, Ron Miles, is very quick to point out that this isn't a story of a miracle happening. His child, Ben, still has autism. Ron and Ben's mom get divorced. But they, along with Ron's new wife, get to watch their child transform because of Disney. And not only do we get to read about that, but we also get to read about the part the Disney company's employees play in Ben's life. And in some ways, we also get some unexpected closure in relation to a ride many of us have been on that is no longer a part of the Magic Kingdom.

I picked this book because I wanted to hear Ben's story and wanted a dose of Disney and because I think it was cheap on Amazon. (Hey, I'm nothing if not honest!) But what I came away with was not just a touching story. It was more validation that My Happy Place is truly magical and that people who don't see that aren't looking hard enough. Not everyone needs to be a Disney fan. I get that. But honestly, it's more than that. It's about being the kind of person who wants to make the world a better place.

And we can never have too much of that.