Pure Imagination

"If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it. Anything you want to, do it. Want to change the world...

...there's nothing to it." - Willy Wonka

Last week I got to meet the man of my dreams - Gene Wilder. Sorry future husband, you will just have to accept me on one condition. I will always love the candy man. And if you happen to be a candy man, there's a 90% chance you are my future husband.

Now I could write pages and pages about Gene Wilder's dramatic (and comedic) genius, but for those of you who know me, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory has defined my mortal existence. I dream of golden tickets every time I open a chocolate bar. I get scared I'll turn into a blueberry if I chew  gum. I lick wallpaper... um, that's not true. But I did make lickable wallpaper once when I converted my childhood home into a chocolate factory and my best friend drove me around dressed as an Oompa Loompa. Inquire within.

But what I love most about Gene Wilder as Mr. Wonka is how he had a hand in making that character as magical and mysterious as I will always remember him to be. At the event, which also happened to be a book signing for his latest romantic fiction Something to Remember You By, Gene relayed a story about one of his "demands" for taking the part.

"When I make my first entrance, I'd like to come out of the door carrying a cane and then walk toward the crowd with a limp. After the crowd sees Willy Wonka is a cripple, they all whisper to themselves and then become deathly quiet. As I walk toward them, my cane sinks into one of the cobblestones I'm walking on and stands straight up, by itself; but I keep on walking, until I realize that I no longer have my cane. I start to fall forward, and just before I hit the ground, I do a beautiful forward somersault and bounce back up, to great applause."

Why did he want Wonka to make this entrance?

Because "from that time on, no one will know if I'm lying or telling the truth." 

Brilliant. And how am I going to relate this back to running? This journey is (hopefully) my most memorable entrance.  I've always wanted to keep people guessing. But I've also always wanted to give people the same faith in pure imagination that Willy Wonka gave me. And how fitting to think that my journey will end (or really just begin) at Hersheypark - one of the most popular chocolate factories in the United States. 

And for those of you who have been wondering where has Gene Wilder been hiding, having not been seen in a movie or on stage in 22 years?

"My agent has tried, but I don't like what I see. There's so much... swearing. And bombs, and fighting, and... swearing. I'd much rather write, drink some tea, give my wife a kiss, and write some more." 

A great man, and a night I will always remember. 

Now hold your breath, make a wish, count to three. Come (run) with me.