Enjoy some time in the world of whimsy

This past weekend, I had a debate with my eldest granddaughter, who is 11 years old. No, we were not concerned with election fraud or global warming or some of the more serious topics of the day. But we were each intent on proving our stance.

The question at hand — was the inflatable raft which was bobbing in the pool in front of us a unicorn or was it a Pegasus? Ah yes, the tough questions indeed. She insisted it was a unicorn, and I claimed it was a winged horse. With all the passion of a future litigator, she sought to win the case.

“It has a horn,” she said. “Pegasus doesn’t have a horn. How can it be Pegasus? Remember when Perseus rode him to save Andromeda? That was Pegasus. No horn. Just wings. But this has a horn. It must be a unicorn.”

While I was tickled pink that she actually knew mythology based on watching the film “Clash of the Titans” with me last year, I could not let on that I was pleased. I continued the debate the issue as her opponent.

“But this beast has wings. How many unicorns do you know that have wings? Maybe this Pegasus just has a deformity in the shape of a horn?” I said, with all the authority of someone who has never seen a unicorn.

Probably with good reason.

“The magical ones do, like on ‘My Little Pony.'” she said. “Haven’t you ever seen those?”

I could not argue with her fictional logic. I conceded that perhaps it could be both, unicorn and Pegasus. Perhaps it was in the family of the narwhal? Anything’s possible. And we both walked away happy in our whimsical collaboration, smiling with fictional pride. I consider that to be time well spent.

What I enjoyed the most of our little tete-atete is that we were up to our eyeballs in our whimsical world, both engaged in a fictional and fun creation of our own making. Sometimes I think a little whimsy is a wonderful thing.

Whimsy can remove us from the harsh and painful reality that surrounds us in social media offerings and the news sources. It can remove us, albeit temporarily, from the sadness and the tragedy that sometimes surround and overwhelm us.

It’s interesting how some of these whimsical wonders have transcended their fictional walls and have become part of our lives. If you are a Harry Potter fan, you will no doubt agree that Buckbeak plays a key role in Harry’s narrow escapes, or that the Cloak of Invisibility and the Marauder’s Map are important tools to his victory over … He Who Will Not Be Named. Any true Harry Potter fan will follow that logic without hesitation.

I suppose this is part of the reason I love Disney World so much. When you set foot in those magical gates, you are transformed into a world of magic, princesses and wonder. There is nothing wrong with an escape from reality every now and again. Each time I go there, I am once again a 12-year-old kid, with no problems of adulthood other than avoiding long wait times for the attractions.

But you needn’t travel anywhere to be transported and you do not need the power of the entertainment industry, either. Recently, I have begun rereading Sherlock Holmes books. I love a good mys